
Glass. 



\r.ZQZ 



Book ■ M 7*3 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



SOCIETY SONS OF THE REVOLUTION 

IN THE STATE OF MISSOURI, 

AT THEIR 

Annual Meeting, February 22, 1895, 

AT ST. LOUIS, MO., 



RT. Rev. DANIEL SYLVESTER TUTTLE, D. D., S. T. D., 

(Bishop of Missouri,) 

President of the Society Sons of the Revolution in the 
State of Missouri. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



ST. LOUIS: 
Woodward & Tiernan Printing Company, 309 to 319 North Third Street. 

1895. 




By transf et 

FEB 9 1916 



A 



WASHINGTON AND THE UNION. 



FELLOW countrymen ! brother Americans ! I ask of you to 
rest your thoughts awhile upon Washington, and particu- 
larly upon Washington as he stood connected with our 
American Union. 

Let us first recall briefly the marked facts of Washington's life. 

He was born in Virginia, on this day, in the year of 1732. 
Before he was twelve years old his father died. Though his 
father was wealthy and a large property was left to his mother, 
yet he was not sent to England, according to the custom of the 
wealthy Virginians, to be liberally educated. A plain, practical 
education fitting for business seems to have been all that he 
attained. A favorite branch of study with him was surveying. 
When only sixteen years old he took full charge of a survey of 
Fairfax's extended estate. Much of this survey was over what is 
now the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah. For three years he 
continued this work of a surveyor. In these three years of his 
young life his physical endurance was well tested, his powers of 
observation quickened, his self-reliance strengthened, his patience 
and perseverance tried and found true, his resources under difficul- 
ties developed, and useful knowledge about forests and the Indians 
inhabiting them acquired. 

In 1751 troubles arose between the French and English settlers 
about Western lands, — the Ohio grants. Virginia, to be ready for 
hostilities, was divided into military districts. In one of these 
districts Washington, a youth of nineteen, through the influence 
of his brother Laurence, was made adjutant-general with the 
rank of major. Laurence Washington was a man of culture and 
influence, the owner of an estate on the banks of the Potomac 
which he called Mount Vernon after the British Admiral 
Vernon, under whom he had served in the Spanish war. In 



June, 1752, the brothers Laurence and George took a trip to 
Barbadoes in the West Indies for the benefit of the health of 
Laurence. This is the only time that George Washington ever 
set foot off the shores of his native America. The trip did 
Laurence little good. He died that year leaving George the 
guardian and eventual inheritor of Mount A r ernon. Thus at 
twenty years of age Washington was manager of a large estate on 
the banks of the Potomac, and adjutant-general in organizing and 
equipping the militia in a district of Virginia. Both of these 
pursuits were much to his taste. From a school-boy he had a 
passion for arms. A fondness for farming he always showed. 
With the help of two old soldiers of the Spanish war he acquired 
knowledge and practice of the manual of arms, and of some evolu- 
tions in the field. The differences between the French and 
English settlers concerning the land along the Ohio being still in 
agitation, the Governor of Virginia sought for a fit man whom he 
could send on special embassy to the French Commander. The 
man must be strong ; for 600 miles through the wilderness were 
to be traversed, — and that too in the depth of winter. He must 
be brave ; for this wilderness was full of savages, and he was to 
go without a military escort, indeed, almost alone. He must be 
wise ; for his diplomacy and tact were to be pitted against the 
wiles of Frenchmen and the cunning of Indians. Major Wash- 
ington, twenty-one years old, was the strong, brave, wise man 
chosen for this duty ; and his duty he performed faithfully and 
successfully during the wjnter months of 1753. From this time 
Washington was a marked man. Hostilities between the French 
and English commencing, Virginia raised a regiment of troops in 
which Washington was appointed Lt.-Colonel. Soon after, by 
the death of the Colonel, he became, at twenty-three years of age, 
Colonel commanding the forces raised. In this, his first cam- 
paign, Col. Washington met with reverses as well as successes. He 
was compelled to give up to the French, on terms of capitulation, 
a fort in which he was entrenched. In the war ensuing, known as 
the " seven years' war," and terminated after the victory of Wolfe 
at Quebec, Washington was more or less actively engaged ; — as 
volunteer on Gen. Braddock's staff, — as adjutant-general raising 
troops and putting them into the field, — and as Commander-in- 
Chief of Virginia's forces. 



Looking over the history of these seven years, we are struck 
with the admirable training which they gave him in preparation 
for his future duties and trials. Having resigned his colonelcy 
from a high toned sense of honor, — because provincial officers 
bearing the Governor's commission were rated inferior to regular 
officers bearing the King's commission, and because he would not 
serve under a junior in rank, — it was as a volunteer that he 
accompanied Braddock's disastrous expedition, a volunteer on the 
General's staff, paying out of his own pocket for his horses and 
equipments. 

So situated he learned valuable lessons in this expedition. It 
was to him what we might now call a West Point education. 
General Braddock, whatever his faults, was brave in danger, 
thorough in discipline, systematic and orderly in his plans and 
their execution, and accomplished in all the military knowledge 
of a regularly educated and experienced British officer. On his 
staff, Col. Washington had opportunity to see in perfection, what 
he had never seen before, the appointments, management, and 
actions of a force of regular soldiers. His sagacity studied, and 
noted for future use and guidance, — in the camp, the details and 
tactics of regular military discipline, — on the march, the best 
ways of conducting forward and retreating movements, — on the 
field, the most efficient mode of disposing and handling large 
bodies of men in evolution. No little, too, did he learn from 
actual experience on the battle field, where his coat was riddled 
with balls and two horses were shot under him; and, where, on 
the occasion of Braddock's defeat, his chief and brother aids being 
struck down, he alone was left to evoke order out of confusion 
and to save from utter ruin the fortunes of the day. 

As adjutant-general, charged with the duty of raising and 
equipping the militia of Virginia, he found it difficult to get 
troops. Then it was hard for him to secure from the dilator}- 
Legislature the necessary appropriations for equipment and pay. 
Then it was harder for him to introduce among the troops sub- 
mission to discipline, necessary to efficiency. The notion of war 
which they liked and meant to follow was on this wise ; — that 
they must select for themselves the officers under whom they 
would serve ; they must choose for themselves what orders were 
wise and right and ought to be obeyed ; they must decide for 



themselves when it would be well for them to throw up their 
fighting and go home to their plowing. If in the field with them 
in the face of danger he found it hardest of all to secure order 
and method, or to prevent his armed yeomanry from choosing 
their own places and following their own ways, that each one 
might fight as he wished and run when he wanted to. 

As Commander-in-Chief of the forces raised, troubles too were 
his. If any officers under him chanced to hold a royal commis- 
sion, they were insubordinate and insolent. A medley of ambig- 
uous and contradictory orders poured in upon him from the 
Governor. Maryland and Pennsylvania and North Carolina were 
jealous of Virginia, and whenever any troops from these colonies 
were under him they gave him trouble. And while for all these 
reasons his power was restricted, he was vexed to know that he 
would be held responsible for results, however bad, of such an 
unsatisfactory state of things. 

I have called special attention to these seven years, for they 
were Washington's schooling time. Acquaintance with actual 
war, its ways, its wants, and its reverses; struggles against diffi- 
culties, patience under them, perseverance in spite of them ; and 
experience of the evils of want of discipline in troops, and of 
the greater evils of want of unity and brotherhood in colonies, — 
trained and fitted the Col. Washington of twenty-five years of 
age to be the General Washington and President Washington of 
after time. 

In 1759 Washington married Mrs. Martha Custis, widow of 
John Parke Custis, Esq., and retired to Mount Vernon. Here in 
comparative retirement he remained for fifteen years, giving care 
to the cultivation of his extensive lands. In comparative retire- 
ment, I say, for during this time he was a member of the House 
of Burgesses, or Legislature, of Virginia and attended its sittings. 
Seldom or never did he rise on the floor of the House to speak. 
He was no orator. When first taking his seat, by vote of the 
House, thanks were returned to him for his military services to 
Virginia. In rising to reply, Washington blushed, stammered, 
stumbled, and was obliged to sit down in confusion. Washington 
was a wise and influential legislator because of his good sense, 
sagacity, sound judgment and dispassionate wisdom, but was no 
orator. Nor needed that Legislature oratory from him. By his 



side sat Patrick Henry to supply all such need, one of the most 
wonderful and effective orators that the world ever heard. 

Perhaps, in deliberative assemblies nowadays, if some of us 
would be content to cultivate and exercise the good sense which, 
it may be, is in us, after the example of Washington, and not 
painfully strain after the eloquence of a Patrick Henry, which 
certainly isn't in us — perhaps we would be of no less value to the 
community, and contribute quite as much to the promptness and 
wisdom of deliberated results. 

In 1774 the colonies began their concerted struggles against 
Great Britain ; not yet for independence, for the journal of the 
first Continental Congress closes with this fervent declaration, — 
" That your Majesty may enjoy every felicity through a long and 
glorious reign over loyal and happy subjects, and that your 
descendants may inherit your prosperity and your dominions till 
time shall be no more, is, and always will be, our sincere and 
fervent prayer ;" nor yet against present felt oppression, for the 
trifling import tax of three pence per pound on tea, all the others 
being repealed, could not be counted burdensome ; — but for the 
steady assertion and sturdy maintenance and demanded recogni- 
tion of the principle that there should be " no taxation without 
representation.' ' 

The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on the 5th 
of September, 1774, and sat with closed doors for more than fifty 
days. Washington and Patrick Henry were among the delegates 
from Virginia. When the latter was asked who was the greatest 
man in that body, he modestly replied, — " If you speak of elo- 
quence in debate, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina ; " and then 
added, — " If you speak of solid information and sound judgment, 
Col. Washington was unquestionably the greatest man on that 
floor." 

The second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, May 
10th, 1775. Washington took his seat in this Congress also, but 
was not allowed to remain in it long. Blood had been shed at 
Lexington and Concord, and armed resistance must be organized. 
In June he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of all the colonial 
forces raised and to be raised. He immediately left for Boston to 
assume actual command, arriving there shortly after the battle of 
Bunker Hill. Nor yet was the war for nationality. It is a whole 



year yet before Jefferson prepares, and the members of this second 
Congress sign, the memorable Declaration of Independence. The 
two armies are not yet called British and American, but Minis- 
terial and Continental. 

I do not propose to follow the history of Washington's career 
throughout the War of the Revolution. In June, 1775, he 
received his commission as Commander-in-Chief from Congress 
at Philadelphia. In December, 1783, he resigned the same into 
the hands of Congress at Annapolis. For eight and a half years 
his was the most trying and responsible position in America. 
Having escaped from it, he welcomed six years of tranquil, happy 
life at Mount Vernon. In 1789 he was drawn again from his 
home to become the first President of the United States. In this 
capacity he served his country wisely and well for eight years. 

Then eagerly he returned once more to the quiet life of his 
loved Mount Vernon. God spared him to his home and to his 
countrymen for two years, and then, just as the eighteenth cen- 
tury was dying out of the present into the past, He took him, — 
our Washington, — unto Himself, — who doubts it, — " the greatest 
of good men, and the best of great men," we humbly and ear- 
nestly believe. 

May I now call your attention to the American Union, and to 
the fact that we owe its existence, its strength, its manifold 
blessings, under God, to Washington ? 

I beg you to remember that when our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was made, it issued from the representatives not of one 
American people, but of thirteen distinct colonies; when our war 
of Independence was fought, it was fought not by united Amer- 
icans, but by English colonists, and Dutch colonists, and Swedish 
colonists, and German colonists, joining themselves together with 
the one purpose, to be free from the odious tyranny of Great 
Britain. 

When our Independence was achieved, there was no one 
American Government ready to receive the heritage and retain 
it and transmit it, but, instead, thirteen sovereign and independ- 
ent States, no longer compelled to work together, and ready, now 
that the pressure of war with a foreign foe was removed, to part 
asunder under the centrifugal forces of local prejudices, diverse 
habits and clashing interests. By whom, under whose influence, 



then, were we changed and made one American people? I 
answer, by and under no one man so much as Washington. 

By circumstances, character, and abilities, Washington was 
eminently fitted to be the founder of our Union. He was native 
born, and had but once, and then only for a few weeks, left the 
shores of the American Continent. He was strong in body, noble 
in person, courteous in manners. He was a good business man, 
and it is wonderful to note how minutely and thoroughly, by an 
uninterrupted weekly correspondence with his Superintendent, he 
maintained personal management of his farm and estate through- 
out the whole Revolutionary war. He was a rich man ; possessed 
after his marriage with Mrs. Custis, of one of the most ample 
fortunes in Virginia. For his services as General in the Revolu- 
tion he would not accept one cent of pay, but called only for the 
reimbursement of the 14,500 pounds which he had actually 
expended for the cause out of his own private funds. He was 
eminently wise ; not coldly and narrowly wise for himself 
merely, but calmly, thoughtfully wise for his country, for others, 
and for himself. His comprehension of contingencies, his sagac- 
ity of judgment, his discretion in words and acts, and his earnest 
diligence to acquaint himself honestly with the merits of both 
sides of every question, were rare indeed. Above all he was a 
man good and true ; unfailing in rectitude, unswerving in integ- 
rity, firm in the right, faithful to duty; conscientiously alive to 
the rights of others, earnestly prayerful to God to guide and 
sustain him in ways acceptable in His sight. 

Rare elements are these which have been enumerated to meet 
in one man. But they did meet, — strength, riches, business 
qualifications, moderation, firmness, wisdom, conscientiousness, 
goodness, — in Washington ; and they gave him power and 
influence, and fitted him for the great work of changing revolted, 
segregated colonists into a united American people. 

Thus fitted for the good work was Washington the man. It 
now behooves me to show, as briefly as I may, how Washington 
the soldier and Washington the statesman wrought the good 
work. 

The military troubles and triumphs of Washington for the 
eight-and-a-half years in which he was Commander-in-Chief of 
our armies I am not about to enumerate. Of brilliant victories 



10 

in the field his career was very bare. I can call to mind but two, 
the battle of Trenton and the seige of Yorktown. But when I 
know that as a Southern Commander the Northern troops were 
naturally disinclined to serve under him ; that the soldiers 
assigned him were raw and undisciplined, hoping and expecting 
to get home next week or next month to their plows and firesides ; 
that able officers like Lee and Gates were selfish and only half 
patriotic; while patriotic officers like Ethan Allen and Putman 
were rash and wrongheaded ; that he was without powder from the 
start, and scarce ever could secure a well ordered commissariat ; 
that in the winters at Valley Forge and Morristown officers and 
soldiers were starved and shoeless ; that State Legislatures in 
their insane jealousies would not furnish him needful forces and 
supplies ; and that, because of his caution and his firm resistance, 
notwithstanding loud clamours, to all temptations to embark in 
rash, wild ventures, he was derided on the floor of Congress as a 
stupid, timid, weak, inefficient Fabius, and that body was at the 
point of superseding him by Gen. Charles Lee, — when I know 
this and know also that ever, through it all, that patriotic 
commander was firm in the right, brave in his heart, wise in his 
work, loyal to duty, true to his country, trustful in his God, and 
hopeful to the last, — then do I say that Washington triumphed 
gloriously as never soldier triumphed before over enemies, over 
circumstances, over himself, and plucked glory for himself, free- 
dom for us, help for the world, from the very darkness of 
engulphing desperation. 

But of Washington the soldier I meant not now to speak > 
only of Washington as laying the foundations for the Union in 
his influence and pleadings while he was a soldier. 

No sooner had he taken command at Boston than he was 
grieved to note the prevalence of sectional jealousies. Connecticut 
men were unwilling to serve under officers from Massachusetts, 
and Massachusetts men under officers from Rhode Island. They 
would not enlist unless they knew their Colonel, Lieutenant- 
Colonel and Captain. General Schuyler wrote that he had the 
same troubles in his camp in Northern New York. 

Washington had no sympathy with these sectional feelings. 
He wanted to be, and strove from the first to be, Commander of 
all the forces of and for one country. Bear with me while I 



11 

quote from his own letters of this period. Early in 1776 in a 
letter to Schuyler he says : " I must entreat your attention to do 
away the unhappy and pernicious distinctions and jealousies 
between the troops of different governments," (meaning the 
different colonies). " Enjoin this upon the officers, and let them 
inculcate and press home to the soldiery, the necessity of order 
and harmony among those who are embarked in one common 
cause, and are mutually contending for all that free men hold 
dear." In a general order of the same year he says, " It is with 
great concern that the General understands that jealousies have 
arisen among the troops from the different provinces ; and that 
reflections are frequently thrown out which can only tend to 
irritate each other and injure the noble cause in which we are 
engaged, and which we ought to support with one hand and one 
heart. The General most earnestly entreats the officers and 
soldiers to consider the consequences ; that they can no way assist 
our enemies more effectually than by making divisions among 
ourselves ; that the honor and success of the army and the safety 
of our bleeding country depend upon harmony and good agree- 
ment with each other ; that the provinces are all united to oppose 
the common enemy, and all distinctions sunk in the name of an 
American. To make this name honorable and to preserve the 
liberty of our country ought to be our only emulation ; and he 
will be the best soldier and the best patriot who contributes most 
to this glorious work, whatever be his station, or from whatever 
part of the Continent he may come." 

In 1780 he writes to a member of Congress, " Certain I am, 
unless Congress speak in a more decisive tone, unless they are 
vested with power by the several States, competent to the pur- 
poses of war, or assume them as matters of right, and they and 
the States respectively act with more energy than they have 
hitherto done, that our cause is lost. We can no longer drudge on 
in the old way. By ill-timing the adoption of measures, by delays 
in the execution of them, or by unwarrantable jealousies, we incur 
enormous expenses, and derive no benefit from them. One State 
will comply with a requisition of Congress ; another neglects to do 
it; a third executes it by halves; and all differ either in the 
manner, the matter, or so much in point of time, that we are 
always working up-hill ; and while such a system as the present 



12 

one, or rather want of one, prevails, we shall ever be unable to 
apply our strength or resources to any advantage. I see one head 
gradually changing into thirteen, I see one army branching into 
thirteen, which, instead of looking up to Congress as the supreme 
controlling power of the United States, are considering themselves 
dependent on their respective States. In a word I see the power 
of Congress declining too fast for the consideration and respect 
which are due to them as the great representative body of 
America, and I am fearful of the consequences." 

Again, in 1783, just before the dissolution of the army, he 
writes to the Governors of the several States, "This is the time of 
the political probation of the citizens of America. This is the 
moment when the eyes of the whole world are turned upon them ; 
this is the moment to establish or ruin their national character 
forever. This is the favorable moment to give such a tone to the 
Federal Government as will enable it to answer the ends of its 
institution ; or this may be the moment for relaxing the powers 
of the Union, annihilating the cement of the Confederation, and 
exposing us to become the sport of European politics, which may 
play one State against another to prevent their growing import- 
ance, and to serve their own interested purposes." He appends 
what he considers the four essentials to the well being, and even 
the existence, of the United States as an independent power. 
These are three of his essentials. " 1. An indissoluble union of 
the States under one federal head, and a perfect acquiescence of 
the several States in the full exercise of the prerogative lawfully 
vested in such a head. 2. A sacred regard to public justice in 
discharging debts and fulfilling contracts made by Congress for 
the purpose of carrying on the war. 3. A disposition among the 
people of the United States to forget local prejudices and policies; 
to make mutual concessions, and to sacrifice individual advan- 
tages to the interests of the community." 

So did Washington while a soldier, by the influence of his 
acts, by the appeals of his pen, and in the fervency of his heart, 
plead for harmony between the people and for a union of all the 
States in one nation. 

The war closed. Washington might have been a king. The 
army would have made him so at his will. But, instead, after a fare- 
well address to his soldiers containing an earnest exhortation to 



13 

them to maintain their attachment to the Union, and a silent, 
tearful leave of his officers, he retired in eagerness to Mount 
Vernon, presenting the sublime and unwonted spectacle of the 
victorious Commander of a devoted army, whose efforts had 
given a nation existence, voluntarily putting off power and 
honors and glad to serve his God and obey the laws as a diligent 
farmer and peaceful, private citizen. 

When the war was over thirteen United States had achieved 
their freedom. But were they one people? By no means. 
They were rather a weak, allied congeries of so many individual 
sovereignties, without fusion or organization into one strong 
nationality. In 1778, during the war, these thirteen States had 
entered into a Confederation. But the Second of their Article of 
Confederation was this : " Each State retains its sovereignty, 
freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and 
right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to 
the United States in Congress assembled." Such a Confederacy 
was not a nation. It was merely a contrived apposition of 
segregated units. When the constraining outer pressure of the 
war was removed, wise men saw no power of coherence in the 
Confederation, and wise men foresaw in the clear light of 
experience of human nature that the power of diverse habits and 
local interests would soon embroil these sovereign States in 
jealousies, dissensions, animosities, and wars. 

Washington, the statesman, observed this condition of things. 
Wise warnings of the coming storm issued from Mount Vernon. 
In 1786, three years after his retirement, he writes: " We have 
errors to correct. We have probably had too good an opinion of 
human nature in forming our Confederation. Experience has 
taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution 
measures the best calculated for their own good, without the 
intervention of coercive power. I do not conceive that we can 
exist long as a nation without lodging, somewhere, a power which 
will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the 
authority of the State Governments extends over the several 
States." 

And again, shortly after : " The consequences of a lax or 
inefficient government are too obvious to be dwelt upon. Thir- 
teen sovereignties pulling against each other, and all tugging at 



14 

the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole ; whereas, a 
liberal and energetic constitution, well checked and well watched 
to prevent encroachments, might restore us to that degree of 
respectability and consequence to which we had the fairest 
prospect of attaining." 

Thank God, wise and good men were not wanting among our 
fathers of those days. These met in convention in Philadelphia 
in 1787, and ordained and established, not as the representatives 
of the States merely, but more as the representatives of the people 
of the United States, our present Constitution, the Magna Charta 
of our liberties, the vital strength and stable safeguard of our 
National Union. Of this Convention Washington was chosen 
President. And who doubts that his wisdom and moderation, 
his wide influence, and deference to his known views guided 
under God, the work of that body and secured the auspicious 
result ? 

The convention sat four months. The magnitude and diffi- 
culty of the work they accomplished can hardly be overestimated. 
Northern claims and Southern claims, producers' wants and con- 
sumers' wants, agricultural interests and manufacturing interests 
and commercial interests, pro-slavery prejudices and anti-slavery 
prejudices, the rights of large States and the rights of small 
States, — had all to be satisfied, or at least harmonized. A greater 
work than theirs and better done, I think the world has never seen. 
I am amazed at their triumphant success. I thank Godfor our wise 
and good constitution. If we should ever dare to violate it and 
break in pieces its blessed covenants, casting them to the sweep- 
ing winds of higher law and the roaring storms of modern pro- 
gress, I count him a hopeless fool who thinks that we, by calling 
ourselves wiser men, can, in the passions and prejudices and 
temptations and selfishnesses of to-day, meet and adjust and 
adopt a better constitution than that well tried one, born of the 
four months' hard labor of 1787. 

Under the eye and help of Washington, the statesman, was 
the Constitution formed. Through his influence, more than of 
any other man, it was adopted and became the organic life of the 
nation. Signally, in this work did he help to found the Union 
and launch it steadily forth for a strong, and God grant, a long, 
voyage among the community of nations. In announcing to the 



15 

President of Congress the result of the deliberations of the con- 
vention, he says : " It is obviously impracticable in the Federal 
governments of these States to secure all rights of independent 
sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of 
all. Individuals entering into society must give up a share of 
liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must 
depend as well on situation and circumstance, as on the object to 
be attained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the 
line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those 
which may be reserved ; and on the present occasion this difficulty 
was increased by a difference among the several States as to their 
situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. In all our 
deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that 
which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, 
the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosper- 
ity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This import- 
ant consideration seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, 
led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of 
inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected : 
and thus the constitution which we now present is the result of a 
spirit of amity, and of mutual deference and concession which the 
peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable." 

Under this Constitution on April 30, 1789, Washington 
became President. There was much risk to the life of the Union 
in the distractions and doubts and inexperience of the times ; in 
the bitter controversies between the Federalists led by Hamilton, 
Secretary of the Treasury, and the Republicans or Democrats led 
by Jefferson, Secretary of State ; but Washington, by staying at 
the helm for eight years, by rigidly obeying the Constitution, by 
moderating the extreme heats of party faction, by allaying preju- 
dices and inspiring confidence, bore the nation safely through. 
To him is due the bringing of all the parts of the new system into 
harmonious working order. So in act and practice was the Union 
his child. He loved it as a child. In his farewell address in 
1797, he earnestly pleads with his countrymen to love, nourish, 
support, maintain the Union. 

Therefore, ever, when Washington is recalled to the memory, 
that the thoughts may yield him homage and the heart may give 
him love, let him be to us not only Washington, the man, the 



16 

general, the President, but Washington, the father of his country, 
the author of our American Union. 

Fellow countrymen, fellow members of the " Sons of the Rev- 
olution," the sword in our fathers' hands won for us freedom. 
Then their wisdom, forbearance, patriotism and love established 
it under the Constitution and provided for its perpetuation and its 
protection by the Union. And the chieftain, whose name and 
birthday we are met to honor, was alike their brave leader in war 
and their wise and trusted guide in peace. The panorama of the 
world's history presents us with the figure of no man who did the 
double duty better. 

The love in our hearts and the gratitude in our thoughts for 
Washington are warm almost to burning. Honest pride in our 
forefathers who served under him swells the breast and quickens 
the flow of the blood. Renew, we want to, our fealty at the shrine 
of this day's memories. And we count ourselves unworthy sons 
of worthy sires if ours be not a steady course of unselfish, unwav- 
ering, patriotic devotion to the flag of our country, — to the Union 
which Washington mightily helped to make, and quite as mightily 
helped to preserve and perpetuate. 



O O 1 



ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Society $on$ of the Revolution 



IN THE STATE OF MISSOURI, 



AT THEIR 



Annual Meeting, February 22, 1895, 

MERCANTILE CLUB HOUSE, ST. LOUIS, MO. 



ALSO AT THE 



Annual Banquet of the Kansas City Chapter, 

COATES HOUSE, KANSAS CITY, MO., 
OCTOBER 19, 1895, 



Right Rev. DANIEL SYLVESTER TUTTLE, D. D., S. T. D., 

Hon. TRUMAN AUGUSTUS POST, 

Hon. JOSEPH VAN CLIEF KARNES, 

Hon. HENRY HITCHCOCK, 
Hon. EDWARD HERRICK ALLEN, 
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D. D., 
Hon. JAMES LAWRENCE BLAIR. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



KANSAS CITY, MO. 

Lawton & Burnap, Stationers and Printers, 706-708 Delaware Street. 

1895. 



- 



ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED AT THE 

BANQUET, 
MERCANTILE CLUB HOUSE, ST. LOUIS, MO., 

FEBRUARY 22, 1895. 



BISHOP TUTTLE. 

Fellow members of the Missouri Society of the Sons of the 
Revolution: 

It is with great pleasure that I extend to you the greetings of 
welcome to-night. From a little one our Society has grown to 
be quite an army. Among the youngest of the State Societies 
though we be, we yet already number one hundred and fifty- 
nine members. 

There is pride in our hearts, and we have no open ears to- 
night for the words which are sometimes bandied about touching 
"poor old Missouri." 

For that matter, Missouri anyway has no call to be ashamed 
of her past record. To instance only one historical name, Thomas 
H. Benton, her distinguished and most influential representative 
in the United States Senate for thirty years, the sagacious prophet 
to foresee the building of a railroad across the Continent, the 
father of the homestead law, and the steady supporter in the days 
of doubt and hesitancy, of the principles of honest money and 
sound finance, 'till "Old Bullion" was fastened upon him as an 
appellation, — his name alone is enough to shed lustre upon our 
Commonwealth, and to give her a place of no mean rank among 
her sister States. 

The day on which we meet is one, I am sure, to send a thrill 
of patriotic affection to the heart of every Son among us. No 
words of mine are needed to awaken in you the grateful love and 
profound reverence with which we are always wont to hail the 



birthday of the Father of Our Country. May I be permitted to 
point your attention to a picture of Washington, kindly loaned to 
us for this evening, and placed on the wall before you? It is 
one of the original portraits painted by Gilbert Stuart. 

There is the immortal hatchet, too, near. Keen, analytical 
scrutiny of historical incidents is taking too much the line of a 
stupid murdering of the innocent children of our memory and our 
imagination. Join me, dear friends, in believing still that Tell 
shot the apple from the head of his son, and that the truthful, 
manly little man with his little axe hacked the cherry tree in the 
Virginia orchard. 

The flag — our flag — a thing of beauty and grace and power, is 
fixed before us to-night. Its greetings to hearts which honor and love 
it are more eloquent than words can tell. With its beautiful, un- 
changing stripes, and with its stars, ever increasing in number 
and glory — Utah, my old home, is soon to be the forty fifth — it 
seems to say : "Sons of the Revolution, your fathers fought to 
give me being. I ask you to live and strive, if need be to fight 
and die, that I, unchanged and unstained, never lowered and 
never dishonored, may continue to float in glad pride over the 
country which I am set to honor, and which you are bound to 
love." 

Hearken, brothers mine, to what the flag says. There is 
inspiration in the utterance. God help us. I speak for your 
hearts and mine. We want to live for the right and true, to help 
make America noble and great. And, by the memory of our 
fathers, by the teachings of the day, by the pleadings of the flag, 
we want all our hearts to beat full with patriotic devotion, loyalty 
and love, till the final rest comes to close the floodgates of earthly 
life. 



Hon. TRUMAN AUGUSTUS POST. 

" THE REVOLUTION : A REBELLION AGAINST 
TYRANNY." 

The lad in the cock loft of the old Bowery theatre, who pro- 
fanely told his chum to "quit munchin peanuts and listen at 
Fori est give them tyrants h-11!" had a patriotism about as lofty and 



a conception of democracy about as well defined, if not as elegantly 
expressed, as many of the youth who are taking lessons in Fourth 
of July statesmanship. 

The Irishman just landed was a trifle more specific in declar- 
ing his simple platform as "furninst the government." Accord- 
ing to his idea, pretty much any government stood for tyrrany 
and ought to be abolished. 

In the municipal "unpleasantness" of 1877, when Mayor 
Overstolz was waited upon by sundry representative citizens, a 
well-known and estimable German of the radical and metaphysi- 
cal school "came also among them"; and after the assembly 
had warmed up and views on the situation had been exchanged 
with much freedom and emphasis, and some anathemas on the 
Fabian policy of "his Honor," he solemnly arose, and with one 
hand beneath the tail of his coat and the other extended toward 
the chief executive of our city, delivered his oracle as follows: 
"Mr. Mayor! This is not a strike. This is not a mob. This is 
not a riot. It is— it is — a revolution." To his aged vision the 
outbreak was a joyous awakening in these latter days and occi- 
dental parts of the spirit of '49 in the Vaterland. The old soldier 
was ready, like Simeon, to take up his nunc dimittis; for he had 
seen the "salvation of God." 

To men of his type there is something sacred in the right of 
revolution per se, pure and simple. Revolution is hailed as an 
end to be sought — a "consummation devoutly to be wished," 
regardless of any question of motives or causes or probable results. 

I believe, Mr. President, that a prominent object to be gained by 
the Sons of the Revolution should be an education, out of all 
these crass and crazy notions of popular rights, whether they be 
the protoplastic conceptions of the Bowery boy or the owl-like 
wisdom of the Radical theorist, into a true understanding of 
American liberty as handed down by our Fathers. 

The "right of revolution," as popularly understood, is one 
always reserved to the people — never surrendered by any written 
constitutions, but attached to and qualifying them all, like an 
unwritten bill of rights, under which the people may at any time 
cast off the existing government, as a serpent molts his skin. 



6 

For one, Mr. President, I do not believe such a doctrine, and 
do not believe our Fathers ever taught it. 

In a general way, it is true that "governments derive their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." And if those who 
exercise the right of revolution comprise the entire population, 
they might, if such a thing were conceivable, get together, as 
some one has described it, on a vast plain, and there in mass 
meeting vote to do away with statutes and constitutions — for that 
matter with any sort of government. If the vote were unani- 
mous, who shall question it? All have sanctioned the movement, 
and none can complain. Society, like an individual, may commit 
suicide. It may go back to its elemental germs. But, if the 
question be taken out of nebulous theories into practical states- 
manship, the case supposed is simply not supposable. A revolu- 
tion always implies opposition; one party or faction, however 
great, downs another, however small. And a " consent of the 
governed," in which all unite and all are bound, is practically 
impossible. 

The right of revolution must always be invoked by some 
party or faction and your radical theorist must hold that the 
question whether the revolution is right or wrong is one to be 
settled absolutely and unalterably by the majority. Vox populi 
vox Dei. "The king can do no wrong;" and when the fiat of 
the people in its majesty, that is, in the expressed will of its 
majority, goes forth, it is final and infallible as that of the Pope. 

Practically understood consent of the government is never a 
consent of the whole people, but is confined to that of a dominant 
party; and it is a melancholy lesson of the past that no infalli- 
bility is to be attached to the utterance of any party or faction 
however mighty. We Americans are not living in Utopia and 
dreaming of a perfect commonwealth, but dealing with a very 
peccable humanity. It is a fact which no one who has not read 
history upside down will question, that parties, like individuals, 
may blunder and sin. Whig and Tory, Girondin and Jacobin, 
Democrat, Federal and Republican — the most potent and famous 
organizations of the past and of the present — have committed follies. 
Some of them have been guilty of crimes such as to "make angels 
weep." 

A frequent rotation in political control is essential to health in 



the body politic, as the double circulation of blood is in our human 
anatomy ; and often times the greater the ascendency of a party, 
the wilder its blunders, the worse its crimes ; hard after victory 
follow edicts of proscription and banishment, and star-chamber sen- 
tences — acts which lend color to Orville Dewey's sneering para- 
phrase of " Vox populi vox Diaboli." 

If the vox populi is indeed the vox Dei — the oracle which 
cannot err, it is not the voice of a particular faction in the midst 
of strife, nor is it that of a single section, or generation of men. 
Its refrain comes also from mankind in other lands outside of the 
din of the struggle, and from the calmer atmosphere of after 
times. 

When the babel of factions has died away and the Macaulays 
of history take up the argument before that calm and silent 
majority which is to render the verdict, the fact that the masses 
were enlisted in the cause of a particular rebellion will not by any 
means determine its merits. Other factors will enter the 
problem. Two or three only can be referred to here. 

One pivotal question will be what promise the insurrection gives 
of stable and permanent order. 

It will certainly begin by taking away an existing government. 

And measure, if you can, the condition of a country left for 
the time without any government. 

The maxim sounds like a blundering paradox which declares it 
"better that laws should be stable than wise"; for stability in 
laws is itself of the very essence of wisdom. Laws which are 
constantly changing, like the shifting sands of the Missouri, 
hardly deserve the name. Fancy a state of society where earth- 
quakes and revolutions, popular upheavals, with kings and queens 
on the ' ' skedaddle, " are looked forward to almost as a matter of 
course. Estimate, if you can, the value of corner lots and bank 
stocks and the damages for the taking of life or restraint of liberty 
in such a community. 

In Anglo-Saxon countries we have trial by jury, habeas corpus, 
a penal code — bulwarks for ages set up in defense of person and 
estate. Think of the tremendous meaning of these safeguards and 
then of a community in which they have been brushed away like 
a cobweb. 



8 

Even despotism means some sort of police, some sort of courts 
— though bad as Jeffrey's — for defense of life and property; 
better a Nero in Rome, or a Nicholas in Warsaw, than ochlocracy. 
Better the legions of Pompey than the ruffian clans of Milo and 
Clodius. Society 7)iust sooner or later have a permanent govern- 
ment. The people will after a while grow weary of the constant 
unrest and fever of strife, and. if peace and good order are not 
otherwise secured will hail as a relief the appearance of the 
" man on horseback" — coming, as he surely will come at last, 
like the deus ex machina in the play, to solve the dilemma. 

Society must have order of some sort; it is "Heaven's first 
law," and the revolution must give pledges, or at least the hope, 
that order in some substantial form shall emerge from the general 
cataclysm. 

Another question which the insurrection must answer is : 
What guaranty does it ofer of equal rights to all citizens ? 

The main spring of rebellion is too often a hatred of class or sect, 
which wreaks its vengeance in the hour of triumph. A kindly 
and catholic spirit of reform is a saving leaven in revolutions. 

Causes may have justified the dethronement of the Bourbons ; 
but the butcheries of Place de la Concorde have made the French 
Revolution eminent only in infamy. 

Many other questions which challenge the march of insurrec- 
tion cannot be considered in the limits of this paper. 

It is enough to say generally that brave men will not "take 
counsel of their fears " ; but if they are wise men they will 
not war for mere theories. They will count the evils to be reme- 
died, the cost of the remedy, and the ground for hoping to 
obtain it. 

Our Declaration of Independence expressly holds "thstpru 
deuce will dictate that governments long established should not be 
changed for light or transient causes," and it proceeds to specify 
the causes which justify revolution, namely, the destruction of 
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" that is, when any 
form of government becomes intolerably oppressive, revolution 
becomes necessary. 

I have heard it stoutly contended by a man standing high at 
the St. Louis bar, that a rebellion is justified by success and 



damned by failure ; that our own of '76 is glorified not by any 
special merit, but by the oriflame of victory. Against this 
assertion I protested at the time and now enter a most emphatic 
protest. 

The colonies in that war were eternally right or eternally 
wrong, regardless of the outcome. The wager of battle simply 
settled the question between Great Britain and her colonies as to 
which had the better soldiers, not as to which had the better 
cause. The merits of the controversy were ripe for adjudication 
before the first shot was fired at Lexington. And subsequent 
events could not alter the verdict. 

The main question at issue, as you know, was whether the 
colonies should submit to taxation without representation. And 
the question was a big one. 

The tax of threepence on tea at first thought seems a trifle, 
and the squabble in Boston Harbor a sort of tempest in a teapot. 
How, you are asked, does such a war compare in merit and 
dignity with one provoked by pangs of the Inquisition and the 
martyr's faggot? 

But study the question a little more closely. After all, are 
not the most dangerous assaults on the body politic those stealthy 
encroachments which are hardly felt, which kill by inches, and in 
their effects reach the whole community ? Some wrongs are so 
high-handed and outrageous that the danger is apparent and 
timely warning is given. Their very atrocity is their preventive. 
But an arbitrary tax on one article in the hands of a single citizen 
hardly touches the pocket; and he who thinks only for himself 
and for to-day will consult his ease by paying it. But measure 
the tax by the number of those whom it affects throughout the 
country and by the continuance of the tax in future years, and 
the precedent established for the imposition of other and greater 
taxes, and see how the question expands! The tax on tea, or stamped 
paper, was nothing. But it conveyed the right to take away every 
dollar of the citizen and to destroy the prosperity of the country. 

"What one character of liberty," said Edmund Burke, "have 
the Americans, and what one brand of slavery are they free from, 
if they are bound in their property and industry by all the 
restraints you can imagine on commerce, and are at the same time 
made the pack-horses of every tax you choose to impose, without 



10 

the least share in granting them ? " Under such a system they 
"could have no sort of security for theirliberties or any part of them.'''' 

Said the elder Pitt : " The Commons in America, represented 
in their assemblies, have invariably exercised the constitutional 
right of giving and granting their own money. They would have 
been slaves if they had not. " 

Public utterances from leading statesmen of England, the most 
emphatic, the most conclusive, because in the nature of a confes- 
sion, can be adduced without stint, declaring that to have yielded 
that one item of threepence on tea would have been to yield the 
liberties of the Colonies. It was a question of life and death 
to constitutional liberty in America. 

Curiously enough, some of the greatest battles for liberty have 
been fought along these lines. You will remember that such 
battles are for and not against property rights ; they are for con- 
servative and not destructive principles ; and the result has been 
that they have re-established liberty on a firmer basis. 

The cause of the American Revolution was the cause of the 
revolution of 1640 in England. Said Burke: "The feelings of 
the Colonies were formerly the feelings of Great Britain. Theirs 
were formerly the feelings of Mr. Hampden, when called on for 
the payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have 
ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune ? No! But the payment of half 
twenty shillings on the principle it was demanded would have 
made him a slave." 

One of the charges in the Declaration against King George was 
that he had taken away the right of trial by jury, and had trans- 
ported American citizens beyond the seas for pretended offenses. 
Read the "Act for suppressing riots in Boston." Then listen to 
the language of Jefferson touching that topic : "The wretched 
criminal, if he happen to have offended on an American side, 
stripped of the privileges of trial by the peers of his vicinage, 
removed from the place where alone full evidence could be 
obtained, without money, without counsel, without friends, with- 
out exculpatory proof, is tried before judges predetermined to 
condemn. Cowards who should suffer their countrymen to be 
torn from the bowels of their society in order to be offered a sac- 
rifice to parliamentary tyrrany, would merit the execrating infamy 
now fixed on the authors of this act." 



11 

One of the charges in the Declaration was that his Majesty 
had "dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with 
manly firmness his invasions of the rights of the people." 

In this respect the American Revolution was in essentials also 
the English Revolution of 1688. Mr. Burke said "he con- 
sidered the Americans as standing at that time and in that con- 
troversy in the same relation to England as England did to James 
the Second in 1688. Says Jefferson : "One of the articles of 
impeachment against Tresilian and other judges at Westminster 
Hall, in the reign of Richard the Second, for which they suffered 
death as traitors to their country, was that they had advised 
their king, that he might dissolve his Parliament at any time, and 
succeeding kings have adopted the opinions of these unjust judges. 
Since the establishment of the British Constitution, however, at 
the Glorious Revolution, on its free and ancient principles, 
neither his Majesty nor his ancestors have exercised such a power 
of dissolution on the island of Great Britain; and when his 
Majesty was petitioned by the united voice of his people, there to 
dissolve the present Parliament, which had become obnoxious to 
them, his Ministers were heard to declare, in open Parliament, 
that his Majesty possessed no such power under the Constitution. 
But how different their practice here! To declare as their 
duty requires the known rights of the country, to oppose the 
usurpations of every foreign judicature, to disregard the injurious 
mandate of a Minister or Governor, have been the avowed causes 
of dissolving the Parliament in America." 

The Declaration of Independence has been characterized as 
made up of "sounding platitudes and glittering generalities," and 
it has been conjectured that while in France Jefferson absorbed 
some of the vague and abstract theories sown by the encyclopae- 
dists which afterwards cropped out in the French Revolution. 
But read the Declaration carefully and you will find that it con- 
tains not less than twenty-seven separate and sharply defined 
indictments against the king of Great Britain for distinct acts of 
usurpation and tyranny. 

It closes the arraignment by declaring that King George has 
"plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and 
destroyed the lives of our people, " — an accusation which bunches 



12 

together in one sentence the blackest crimes of despotism. 

The Colonies were a thoroughly loyal people. They were 
loyal to the mother country while loyalty was possible and long 
after it had ceased to be a virtue. At the outset they hardly 
dreamed of independence. They repeatedly petitioned the Eng- 
lish Crown and people for redress. Before independence was 
declared the oppressions had continued through ten miserable 
years, commencing with the insidious encroachments of tyranny, 
and culminating in the ravages of war. 

They did not declare their independence when the stamp act 
was passed ; not when their commerce was crippled ; not when 
Boston Harbor was closed ; not when Falmouth was shelled ; not 
until their towns had been laid in ashes, and the blood of their 
countrymen had dyed the field of Lexington. 

In closing, let me give you a sentiment in line with the lead- 
ing thought of this response and with the spirit of Bunker Hill 
and Valley Forge: 

Among the mementos and trophies which adorn the walls of 
Mount Vernon is an old sword in its scabbard, presented by 
Washington to some one whose name has escaped me. But the 
language of the gift, written on a paper attached to the weapon, 
will not fade from memory. It is nearly as follows : ' ' This 
sword is given with the injunction that it shall never be drawn 
save in the defense of country and having once been drawn it 
shall never be sheathed till her rights have been secured." 



Hon. JOSEPH VAN CLIEF KARNES. 

"THE REVOLUTION: A PRELUDE TO FREEDOM." 

The subject assigned me is exceedingly rich in meaning, and 
invites attention to the distinguishing features of great movements 
that have taken place, and the results that have followed after 
them. 

The development and growth of the world's civilization has 
not been steady and onward, but has rather been a series of 
epochs, each possessing its own special characteristics. History 
shows that certain periods and events have been pivotal, and that 



13 

oftentimes upon the decision of an hour, the result of a conflict, 
the assertion of a principle, great changes have been effected in 
the whole current of human affairs. It is not always easy to as- 
certain the forces which bring about these changed conditions, but 
that they exist stands as admitted facts. The urgent appeal of 
Miltiades to his associate commanders for an immediate attack on 
the Persian invader as he lay slumbering upon the plains of Mar- 
athon, at first appears no more significant than the courage and 
decisive action often displayed in war; while in fact the few hours 
thereafter determined the whole course of empire for Europe for 
ages to follow. This turned the tide. And at Thermopylae and 
Salamis was decided the crisis in the struggle between the Euro- 
pean and the Asiatic worlds. The monument with its immortal 
inscription, "Go tell at Lacadaemon that we lie here in obedience 
to her laws," marks the spot which saved for mankind the learn- 
ing and refinement of Greece, and it stamps the Spartan name 
with a nobility which has been an inspiration to succeeding gen- 
erations. 

The destruction of the Spanish Armada was much more than 
the result of a great naval engagement. Philip II. had planned 
for enlarging his empire into a universal monarchy. He was 
intense in his religious convictions. All Europe, except England 
and Holland, was at his feet. And it was his ambition to restore 
papal power to universal supremacy. The result of this engage- 
ment involved the two great divisions of religious thought, and 
forever established the protestant faith as one of the controlling 
religious forces of the world. Without passing upon the merits 
of the momentous issues at stake, it is safe to say that from this 
event effects were produced that will be felt as long as the Chris- 
tian religion is a controlling force among men. 

When the columns of Wellington and Blucher stood like a 
wall against the furious assaults of Napoleon and Ney, it was the 
cause of constitutional government against arbitrary power; and 
had they wavered, it would have recast the map of Europe, estab- 
lished new systems of laws, and deflected the entire current of the 
civilization of the nineteenth century. Since that memorable 
day, England and English policies have well nigh dominated the 
world. 



14 

Thus, all along the line of history, from its earliest dawn, 
occur these striking phenomena. The stream for a time widens 
and deepens, bearing upon its broad surface the richest treasures 
of thought and human activity, until some apparently adventitious 
circumstance creates a new outlet, and then the whole tide sweeps 
away into other channels. 

Probably no other period more thoroughly emphasizes the 
idea I have sought to advance than that leading up to the Ameri- 
can Revolution. The thought and action of men are largely con- 
trolled by environment, and probably never were circumstances 
and surroundings more favorable for the establishment of a new 
governmental principle than those of that time. This was really 
a new world, as much so for social and political experiment, as if, 
fresh from the creative hand, it had taken its place in the pro- 
cession of worlds. Those who reached these shores naturally felt 
as if they had been thrown off into space, and had at last been 
drawn to another state of existence. Under such conditions the 
inclination would be to lay aside preconceived notions, to turn 
away from established precedents, and to erect the edifice of gov- 
ernment on foundations of absolute right and justice. The terrors 
of the sea and the privations of the wilderness deterred any but 
the most energetic and courageous from joining in the work; and 
the result was, that the early settlers, whether Puritans or Quakers, 
Huguenots or Catholics, were distinguished for the earnestness of 
their convictions and their dauntless bravery. They were ever 
ready to meet any danger, and to resist any aggression. Lying 
back of this was a very strong religious feeling which made them 
bold in standing firm for principle. History furnishes no parallel 
for such opportunities for the development of new ideas in gov- 
ernment. They were an educated, Christian class, cultivated but 
not to the extent of effeminacy, taught the brotherhood of man by 
their constant perils, far removed from the center of authority; 
so every impulse was to govern themselves in their own way. 
From the very beginning, republican ideas and feeling, transmitted 
from the period of the commonwealth in England, were widely 
diffused. The divine right of kings found but a feeble recogni- 
tion. The Virginia colony early clamored for the house of bur- 
gesses chosen by the people, which was the beginning of repre 



15 

sentative government in America; and before the Pilgrims 
landed at Plymouth, they had formulated a government strictly 
republican. 

But, notwithstanding this feeling, the final declaration of it as 
the correct principle of government was reluctantly made. There 
is an inertia of mind as well as of matter. Conservatism requires 
less effort than radicalism. In 1774 Washington wrote: "No 
such thing as independence is desired by any thinking man in 
America." And a month before the battle of Concord, John 
Adams publicly declared in Boston, ' 'that it was a slander on the 
province that there are any who pant for independence. " And 
Jefferson said that "before the 19th of April, 1775, I never heard 
a whisper of a disposition to separate from Great Britain." Not- 
withstanding the wrongs that were being inflicted by the ministry 
in power, there was a strong attachment for the mother country. 
While it was a monarchy, it contained many of the features of a 
republic, and through its wise laws had guaranteed to its citizens 
a large share of liberty and protection. And it is to the 
credit of those wise men that the final rupture was long delayed. 
The world has never known a more magnificent body of men than 
those who constituted the "Old Continental Congress." Of their 
petition to King George, William Pitt said, "For myself I must 
avow that in all my reading — and I have read Thucydides, and I 
have studied and admired the master statesmen of the world — for 
solidity of reason, force of sagacity and wisdom of conclusion, 
under a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body 
of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Phila- 
delphia. The histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing equal 
to it, and all attempts to impose servitude upon such a mighty 
continental nation must be in vain." This action was before Lex- 
ington and Concord, and they were not then looking to independ- 
ence, but it was simply a heroic devotion to principle. A large 
share of the unjust taxation had been removed, but the command 
K)f the King was, "that there should always be one tax, at least, 
to keep up the right of taxing," to which the answer of the colo- 
nists was, that "taxation without representation" was tyranny, 
and woidd be resisted. When the issue was finally joined, it was 
not so much the burden imposed as the principle involved. The 



16 

King asserted the right to tax much or little, at his pleasure, and 
undertook to enforce this right by the most offensive measures. 
Ministerial persecution was specially directed against Boston, but 
the wrong was promptly resisted by every province. This called 
forth the patriotic utterance of Patrick Henry, when he said, 
"British oppression has effaced the boundaries of the several 
colonies; the distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, 
New Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Vir- 
ginian, but an American." 

The "Second Continental Congress" was composed of many 
of the same men as those in the first. They again petitioned the 
King for a redress of grievances, the answer to which was an in- 
crease of the military equipment at every point, with an avowed 
purpose of subjugation. Then the Revolution came. On June 
7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution into Con- 
gress, declaring "that the United Colonies are and ought to be 
free and independent states, and that their political connection 
with Great Britain is and ought to be dissolved." This resolution 
passed. A committee was appointed to draft a declaration of 
independence, which was written by Jefferson, and on July 4, 
1776, was adopted, and a new nation was born. As Guizot says, 
"They rose into existence as a state under the banner of right and 
justice." From this hour a new doctrine in government was 
promulgated; a new source of power and authority was asserted. 
The germ of self-government which had been planted at Plymouth 
and Jamestown, and which had been swelling and growing during 
colonial days, sprang up and became a living reality. A new 
star had shown out in the firmament, and all eyes were fixed upon 
it. There had been attempts before to construct republican gov- 
ernment, but it was reserved for this immortal document to de- 
clare "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these 
are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these 
rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed.'" This recognized the 
people as the sovereign power, thus reversing the monarchial idea 
that all power is from above. When the Queen of England opens 
Parliament, she says, "My Lords and Gentlemen: The relations 



17 

between my government and foreign nations remain friendly," 
etc. But the President of the United States asks Congress to 
join with him in passing such laws as will give effect to the will 
of the people. Since July 4, 1776, every official, high or low, is 
only a public servant. The Declaration of Independence came to 
the world like a revelation from Heaven. In fact, next to the 
Sermon on the Mount, it is the most wonderful production ever 
penned. It declares that life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness are the inalienable rights of every individual. It makes the 
race of life open to all alike. It puts it in the power of every in- 
dividual to reach the outside limit of his capacity. All traditions 
were thrown aside: all the glamour of royalty was dispelled. This 
was a revolt, not only against England, but it was a revolt against 
the political sentiment of the world. It challenged the attention 
of the student of political science in every country, and the gen- 
eral forecast was that the ship thus launched would soon go down 
in disaster. Viewed from the standpoint of the present day, our 
amazement is at the wonderful sagacity and statesmanship of men 
living in such circumscribed conditions. 

In 1778, bills were passed by the British Parliament repealing 
all acts obnoxious to the Americans, and efforts were made at 
reconciliation, but those noble patriots refused to treat on any 
other basis than the independence of the colonies. They read in 
the future the destiny that awaited their bold movement. They 
already heard the plaudits of coming generations. The light they 
had hung out was casting its rays into the dark places of the 
earth. And so, with unshaken faith and Spartan valor, all was 
trusted to the god of war, and not a step was retraced. 

"The old Continentals 
In their ragged regimentals 
Faltered not." 

The tide of success ebbed and flowed for seven long years. 
The surrender of Cornwallis was the closing act in a cycle of 
events fraught with interests as potent for good as any in the 
history of the race. There had been both a revolution and an 
evolution. The controversy had its beginning in protests against 
unwarranted aggressions. From this were evolved new ideas of 
civil and political rights. And in the end came a government 



18 

whose corner stone was the sovereignty of the people. Appro- 
priately can it be said that this Revolution was a prelude to free- 
dom. We have no record of any other carried on as this was. 
There were no excesses, no violence, no dissensions; but every 
blow was directed at the enemy, and every movement was made 
in accordance with the rules of honorable warfare. How unlike 
the French Revolution which followed so soon after. No doubt 
the French nation was encouraged to attempt its own liberty by 
the enthusiasm excited by the ultimate triumph of the American 
colonies, but they proceeded on different lines. And while there 
was brought to France a measure of civil and religious liberty, 
every step was marked with bloodshed. 

They who signed the Declaration of Independence gave to its 
principles a living force by the formation of the Union, and the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. As if guided by a divine 
hand, every step led to something higher and better. The theory 
of the American republic is that not a vestige of arbitrary power 
remains. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is vouch- 
safed to every citizen by the law of the land, and no one is so 
strong as to deprive him of them. The freedom won by the Rev- 
olution must not be understood as the synonym of license, or that 
it implies a freedom from legal restraint. The freedom of the re- 
public contemplates a strict observance of the law which the peo- 
ple have imposed upon themselves, and whenever it is sought to 
go beyond this, the strong arm of the executive should be inter- 
posed to enforce the law. 

No estimate can be made as to the extent that the principles 
upon which our government was founded have been diffused 
among thoughtful men everywhere. The doors of absolution may 
be shut against them, yet they break through. Russia may fur- 
ther add to her infamy by doubling and quadrupling her levies of 
political recruits for the mines of Siberia; but the very winds that 
sweep over her vast territory carry the seeds of liberty, and they are 
finding lodgment; and, call it Nihilism, or what you will, the day 
is not far distant when the whole people will rise up, and the rev- 
olution will have been accomplished. The spread of socialism in Ger- 
many shows the unrest of the people; and the example of France 
is fast making itself felt in Spain and Italy. The states of South 



19 

America will soon all join the republican column. The republic 
has brought to Mexico a stability of government and prosperity 
never enjoyed by her before. Away out in the islands of the sea, 
for imperial rule there is being -substituted the sovereignty of the 
people. 

Since 1776 to the present time, with every recurring year, the 
principles developed and promulgated by our forefathers have 
exerted a stronger influence. In his American Commonwealth, 
Prof. Bryce says, ' k They are, or are supposed to be, institutions 
of a new type. * They represent an experi- 

ment in the rule of the multitude, tried on a scale unprecedentedly 
vast, and the results of which everyone is concerned to watch. 
And yet they are something more than an experiment, for they are 
believed to disclose and display the type of institutions, towards 
which, as by a law of fate, the rest of civilized mankind are 
forced to move, some with swifter, others with slower, but all 
with unresting feet." And the same author further says, 
"Thoughtful Europeans have begun to realize, whether with sat- 
isfaction or regret, the enormous and daily increasing influence of 
the United States, and the splendor of the part reserved for them 
in the development of civilization." 

This splendid heritage of free government is ours. A con- 
templation of the great work of our patriotic ancestors, and the 
thought that it is entrusted to our keeping should inspire the 
loftiest patriotism. No selfish ambition, no party zeal, should ob- 
scure the fact that the perpetuity of these institutions in all their 
glory and power is the first duty of every citizen. All measures 
and policies should be subordinated to the conservation of those 
great principles upon which our government was founded. As 
Rufus Choate said, let us "join ourselves to no party that does 
not carry the flag and keep step to the music of the Union. '' Some 
nations deify their ancestors; it would be well if the memory of the 
heroes of '76 could be enthroned in the minds and hearts of our 
people, holding them steadfast in the faith that life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness are the inalienable rights of every indi- 
vidual, and that to secure those rights, governments are instituted 
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed. The doctrine, sealed in blood at Trenton and Valley 



20 

Forge, at Saratoga and Yorktown, that all men are created free 
and equal, should be treasured as one of the richest legacies given 
to the world. If the banner of freedom is to be kept aloft, we 
must hold fast to these cardinal doctrines. These were the prin- 
ciples on which the Revolution was fought and brought to a suc- 
cessful close; and on these enduring foundations must rest our 
future stability as a nation. This freedom thus won in sacrifice 
and blood is ours to enjoy, but it is ours also to perpetuate. To do 
this it is not sufficient alone to hallow the memories of those who 
achieved this great victory for the world. To cherish a pride of 
ancestry is well, but we have ourselves a duty to perform. 

"I am one who finds within me a nobility 
That spurns the idle pratings of the great, 
And the vain boast of what their fathers were 
While they themselves are tools effeminate, 
The scorn of all who know the worth of mind and virtue." 

Sons and Daughters of the Revolution should set the highest 
examples of devotion to the principles declared by the founders of 
the Republic, and by high courage and eternal vigilance strengthen 
the faith that "Government of the people, and by the people, and 
for the people, shall not perish from the earth." They should 
stand on the picket-line, meeting every danger. To every 
foe the warning should be, "Procul, O procul, esteprofani." As 
constituent elements of this great political body, their citizenship 
should be conspicuous, and their work should be earnest and ac- 
tive in the promotion of that honor and honesty, truth and intelli- 
gence, which are the only safeguards to free institutions. We 
should talk of our country, and proclaim its glories. Its mission 
has but just begun. It can be confidently hoped and expected 
that in the coming years freedom born of the Revolution will 
bring all nations under its beneficent rule. Its conquering march 
cannot be resisted, its glory cannot be dimmed. 

"Forever furl that standard sheet, 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us. 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us." 



21 



Hon. HENRY HITCHCOCK. 

"THE REVOLUTION: A MAKER OF THE WAY CLEAE 
FOR THE ENTHRONEMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL 
LAW." 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

The patriots who fired the first shots of the Revolution, the 
"embattled farmers" at Concord Bridge 

"Who fired the shot heard round the world," 
were minute men. I am officially advised that those who have 
the honor this evening of recalling to you what those patriots 
achieved, not for themselves and their posterity alone, but for 
mankind, are to consider themselves fifteen-minute men, and that 
they are on no account to exceed twenty minutes. 

The Committee's limit is a judicious one. It has the quality 
of mercy, which is twice blessed, — blessing both him who is 
invited to speak and them who are expected to patiently 
hear. But when applied to the sentiment which the Chairman 
has just announced, it reminds one of that story of a certain liter- 
ary Frenchwoman, on the occasion of her first meeting a famous 
German metaphysician. She greeted him, the story goes, with 
effusion — "I am enchanted to meet you. It is you who have 
invented that so difficult and most charming philosophy. And 
now you will tell me all about it in five minutes." "But, 
madame," answered the startled sage, "there are some things 
which do not express themselves in five minutes. " 

Under the present circumstances, a response to that sentiment, 
by way either of an historical account of the Revolution, or a crit- 
ical disquisition upon the Constitution, would involve a like em- 
barrassment. The outlines, at least, of that great struggle are 
familiar to every American. Its cardinal events and the illustrious 
names of its chief actors are household words. Lexington, Bunker 
Hill, Ticonderoga, Fort Moultrie, Trenton and the crossing of the 
Delaware, Bennington, Saratoga, Stony Point, King's Mountain, 
the Cowpens, the final surrender at Yorktown, — with what just and 
patriotic pride do we recall these victories, — for Bunker Hill was in 
its results a victory — those successive and glorious steps in the march 



22 

of human liberty and progress, contrasting them with the many 
bloody fields where millions of hearts and homes were desolated, 
to gratify one man's ambition for empire, or to secure the suprem- 
acy of one nation by the conquest and enslavement of another. 

We cannot forget the darker scenes of that long and doubtful 
contest. — among them the retreat from Long Island, the long 
winter of suffering at Valley Forge, the disasters at the Brandy- 
wine. Germantown and Camden, or the massacres of Wyoming 
and Cherry Valley, the work of savage allies, the employment of 
whom Edmund Burke denounced with indignant sarcasm in the 
British House of Commons. More threatening still were the 
internal dangers. — the lack of organization, civil ami military, the 
lack of money and credit, which it was vainly attempted to replace 
by enormous issues of a paper currency, based upon those pernicious 
theories of so-called finance and fiat money which have unhappily 
survived even that terrible experience to delude and distress suc- 
ceeding generations, — money, of which, before the war ended, as 
Washington said, it took a wagon load to pay for a wagon load of 
provisions; the administrative incapacity of Congress, which more 
than once paralyzed the uplifted arm and sword of Washington; 
the jealousies and rivalries which bore fruit in the schemes of 
Conway's cabal to supplant Washington in the chief com- 
mand; the secret treachery of Charles Lee, and the trea- 
son which set the name of Benedict Arnold upon a pinnacle of 
infamy overtopped only by that of Judas Iscariot. 

Against those dark shadows stands out in bright relief the 
generous ardor of the youthful Lafayette, manifested not more in 
his filial devotion to Washington and his services in the field, than 
in his urgent appeals to the French Minister. Vergennes, that the 
King of France should furnish the aid. naval and military, which 
should turn the scale in favor of the almost exhausted Colonies. 
That aid was given; and on October 19, 1781, Lord Cornwallis, 
shut up in the peninsula at Yorktown, cut off by the French fleet 
from help by sea, confronted on land by the combined armies of 
Washington and Rochambeau, laid down his arms. A hundred 
years later, at the Centennial of Yorktown. this nation welcomed 
as ancient allies and honored guests the representatives of the 
French Republic. 



23 

But we have not met this evening, nor was this Society estab- 
lished, to celebrate feats of arms, or to perpetuate, as such, the 
memory of military triumphs. The sentiment which the Chairman 
has proposed, by a figure of speech personifying the War of the 
Revolution, bids us regard its highest significance and glory, and 
invites us to contemplate and rejoice in its true and noblest work. 
That work was not to scatter and destroy, nor merely to break the 
power on this continent of an obstinate king, above whose crown 
no longer shone the legendary halo of divine right, yet who would 
still play the tyrant across the sea. It was to prepare for the 
building of a new nation, according to a plan yet untried, and which 
was to constitute a new departure in the political history of mankind. 
The far-sighted statesmanship of Benjamin Franklin, at the Col- 
onial Conference at Albany in 1754, outlined and proposed a plan 
which involved the same essential principles: but the time was 
not ripe, for the contest between England and France for the do- 
minion of the New World, once more renewed, had to be fought 
out. The British conquest of Canada, while it relieved the Col- 
onies from the danger of invasion, also gave opportunity and 
encouragement to George III. and his parliament to assert arbi- 
trary powers of taxation and control which the men of the Colonies 
deemed subversive of their rights as freemen, and which they 
steadily resisted year by year. At last, in 1774, the Boston Port 
Bill and its kindred Acts of Parliament brought on the crisis, the 
Articles of Association were signed, the first Continental Congress 
met, and in the Union of Colonies thus formed were laid the foun- 
dations, of that more perfect union which was to come. 

"The Union," — said Mr. Lincoln, in his first inaugural address, 
— "is much older than the Constitution. It was formed 
in fact by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured 
and continued by the Declaration of Independence. It was fur- 
ther matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States express- 
ly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Arti- 
cles of Confederation, in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the 
declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution 
was 'to form a more perfect union.'' " 

It is interesting, in connection with this declaration of Mr. 
Lincoln, and in view of the circumstances under which it was 



24 

made, to note the statement made by Alexander H. Stephens, 
Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, in his elaborate work, 
"The War Between the States," that "The first Union, so 
formed, from which the present Union arose, was that of the 
Colonies in 1774." 

Thus united, thus already a nation in embryo, represented in 
all external relations by the Continental Congress, although the 
feebleness and insufficiency of its powers added enormously to the 
difficulties of the task, the Colonies went forward in their 
divinely appointed work of extirpating the last vestige of kingly 
power or arbitrary control over their inherited rights. Two 
years of unavailing remonstrance and determined, though passive, 
resistance convinced the most reluctant that for this nothing short 
of independence would suffice; and in adopting the Declaration of 
Independence the next step was taken towards establishing a 
government based upon the rights of man, and which should 
reconcile the demands of liberty with the wholesome and indis- 
pensable restraints of law. It was not merely the wreaking of 
childish wrath upon a senseless thing, that when the Colony of 
New York, on July 9, 1776, ratified the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, the patriots of its chief city celebrated the occasion by 
throwing down the leaden statue of George III. on the Bowling 
Green and casting it into bullets. It was a very practical expres- 
sion of their purpose to fight for their rights, since fight they 
must. But the act, however unimportant in itself, was profoundly 
typical of the new era, of the political principles whose supremacy 
it declared, of the displacement of the old order and the ushering 
in of the new. Till then it might have been said in America, as 
in Europe, "The king is dead ; long live the king." But when 
the Declaration of Independence proclaimed, and the Treaty of 
Paris ratified, so far as the United States of America w r ere con- 
cerned, the political fact which in technical legal phrase is called 
the demise of the crown, it can be truly said that the Revolution, 
in accomplishing the dethronement of George III., made the way 
clear for the enthronement of the Constitution. 

I repeat, the work of the Revolution was not a work of 
destruction, but of development, of upbuilding. The old edifice 
could not endure. The statesmen of the Colonies — and that 



25 

Washington, Franklin, Otis, Samuel and John Adams and their 
associates were statesmen of the first rank, impartial history has 
long ago declared — building even more wisely than they knew, 
had laid the foundations broad and deep. And when the clash of 
arms had ceased, when the pressure of a common external danger 
had relaxed, still steadfastly toiling through many dark and 
anxious days, braving and at last overcoming obstacles greater 
and internal dangers more alarming than any foreign foe could 
contrive, it was their crowning achievement to erect the new 
edifice in which to enthrone the Constitution, under which they 
established a government which could solve, and which — thank 
God !■ — has solved problems, and overcome perils, such as were 
never before successfully encountered in the political history of 
mankind. 

Foremost among these statesmen, by universal acclaim, — 
"First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his country- 
men," — was the majestic figure of him, the anniversary of whose 
birth this society celebrates by its first festive meeting. In hon- 
oring the memory of George Washington, its members proclaim 
their fidelity to the moral and political principles which his 
matchless career exemplified, and their deep conviction, — as 
citizens of a country which to him, under God, more than to any 
other man, owes its existence, the blessings of its past and the 
marvellous promise of its future, — that only by the maintenance 
of those principles, by observance of the prophetic counsels of 
that unequaled legacy of wise patriotism, his Farewell Address, 
can the welfare of that country be promoted, the Union be main- 
tained, or the government established by the Fathers handed down 
to their posterity. 

To the innumerable eulogies of Washington I shall not pre- 
sume to add another. But one sentence from an eloquent 
address of Phillips Brooks, is in itself a description of 
Washington so admirable and a eulogy so complete, that I ven- 
ture to repeat it. 

' ' It was a noble gift of Providence that in one man should be 
comprised and pictured, for the dullest eye to see, the majesty 
and meaning of the struggle that gave our nation birth." 

After all, not only to the mass of mankind, but to him who is 



26 

most familiar with the study of those underlying principles of 
which the events of history are only the inevitable working out, 
the life and character of a great man are the best expression and 
illustration of those principles. He is the incarnation of the 
truths which inspired him, the motives which impelled him, the 
cause for which he stood : and for most of us, the best way to 
understand these is to study the lives of such men. Above all 
is this true when they bore some large part in great events, which 
either promoted or retarded the welfare of mankind. So, Martin 
Luther stands for the Reformation, Napoleon Bonaparte for mili- 
tary genius, inflamed by an utterly selfish ambition, and Wash- 
ington for a sublime patriotism, forgetful of self and devoting the 
powers of a great soul to the establishment of human liberty pro- 
tected and regulated by law. Of such men it has been truly said 
— "Some men are events. It is not what they say, or what they 
do, but what they are, that moves the world." 

In the few moments that remain, permit me to speak of that 
other illustrious American, the trusted friend and biographer of 
Washington, to whom, scarcely less than to those who framed it, 
the true enthronement of the Constitution was due. For while it 
is true that the Revolution made the way clear, and that the 
statesmen and heroes of the Revolution were the men who placed 
the Constitution upon its throne, it is not less true that by John 
Marshall, the Expounder of the Constitution, its meaning was 
interpreted, its principles explained, the novel and unique powers 
which it conferred upon the different departments of the govern- 
ment enforced, and the dignity of that great tribunal maintained 
over which he presided for the period of a generation. 

It was in the year of Marshall's birth, 1755, that Washington 
bore his memorable part in the disastrous expedition and defeat 
of Braddock. In May, 1775, at the outbreak of the Revolution, 
Marshall, not yet twenty years of age, was a lieutenant, in 1777 
a captain, in the patriotic army, in which he served more than 
five years. In November, 1775, he was engaged in a sharp tight 
at Great Bridge, as lieutenant of a company of sharpshooters, 
who dislodged a force of British regulars from a fort commanding 
the approach to Norfolk, thereby securing the capture of the 
town, the British losing sixty-one men, while not a Virginian 



27 

■was slain. Later, he served in the battles of Iron Hill, Brandy- 
wine, Germantown and Monmouth, also taking part in the bold 
surprise of Paulus Hook by Major Harry Lee, and in the still 
more daring and successful assault on Stony Point by Mad 
Anthony Wayne, in 1779. He shared with conspicuous cheerful- 
ness and patience the sufferings and privations at Valley Forge, 
where his singularly sweet and serene temperament made him the 
idol of his comrades, who regarded him, says a contemporary, 
as not only brave, but signally intelligent, and constantly 
appealed to him as the arbiter of their disputes. Often employed 
as judge advocate, he became personally acquainted with Wash- 
ington, thus beginning the warm friendship which ever after- 
wards subsisted between them. In the intervals of leisure towards 
the close of the war, he studied law, and settling in Richmond 
when peace was declared, his rapid rise to professional distinction 
was equalled only by his extraordinary personal popularity. 
Never seeking public office, he was repeatedly elected to the legis- 
lature, the last time without his knowledge and against his will. 
His observation and experience, both during the war and in the 
still more trying times which followed the peace, convinced him, 
to use his own words, that no safe and permanent remedy for 
the public dangers could be found but in a more efficient and 
better organized government. He was not a member of the con- 
vention of 1787, which framed the Constitution, but when it was 
submitted to the States, he was a determined advocate for its 
adoption, and was elected a member of the Virginia Convention of 
1788, by a triumphant majority, in the face of strong opposition. 
In that convention, perhaps the most illustrious body that ever 
assembled in Virginia, Marshall took a leading part. Patrick 
Henry, then at the height of his fame, led the attack upon the 
Constitution, seconded by Monroe, Mason and other advocates of 
State sovereignty, and opposed by Madison, Randolph, Marshall 
and other men of note, and during twenty-five days of keen and 
powerful debate the issue was in doubt; but by a narrow majority 
the friends of the Constitution finally prevailed. In the political 
conflicts which followed, the courage, the personal influence and 
great ability of Marshall became still more conspicuous, and his 
professional reputation steadily grew. Washington, during his 



28 

second presidency, offered him the position of Attorney General, 
and subsequently the mission to France, to succeed Mr. Monroe, 
both of which he declined. But in 1797, he reluctantly accepted, 
from a sense of public duty, an appointment by President Adams, 
as one of three envoys extraordinary to France, his associates 
being Gerry and Pinckney, to renew negotiations the failure of 
which had brought the two countries to the brink of war. Their 
mission was unsuccessful. Talleyrand in vain attempted alter- 
nately to browbeat and cajole them into the payment not only of 
tribute, but of a bribe. The publication in the United States of the 
masterly official dispatches prepared by Marshall, while arousing 
universal indignation, greatly increased his reputation. His 
return home, in June, 1798, was literally an ovation. At a 
public dinner given in his honor by members of both Houses of 
Congress, was proposed the sentiment, instantly everywhere 
repeated and often quoted since, — "Millions for defense, not a 
cent for tribute." In 1799, at the earnest solicitation of Wash- 
ington, he became a candidate for Congress, declining an offer by 
President Adams of a seat in the Supreme Court as successor to 
Judge Wilson. An exciting canvass resulted in his election, in 
spite of personal calumnies so gross as to call forth a letter from 
Patrick Henry, warmly supporting him as "far above any compe- 
tition." He had scarcely taken his seat, in December, 1799, 
when the melancholy duty devolved upon him of announcing to 
the House the death of Washington, and the resolutions adopted 
on his motion, though written by another, contained the well- 
known tribute to him who was — "First in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his fellow countrymen." He served only 
part of his term in Congress, being soon called to a Cabinet posi- 
tion, but during that time took part with distinguished ability in 
a debate which involved the constitutional powers of the Presi- 
dent, by a speech which it was conceded admitted of no reply. 

In May, 1800, President Adams appointed Marshall Secretary 
of War, which he declined; but the Secretary of State also resign- 
ing, he was appointed to and accepted that position, and again dis- 
played his great powers in the dignified and skillful conduct of 
negotiations with France, England and Spain, involving internal 
questions of the highest importance. On the 31st day of Janu- 



29 

ary, 1801, he was nominated by President Adams and unani- 
mously confirmed by the Senate to the position of Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court of the United States. With such training, as 
soldier, lawyer, legislator, statesman and man of affairs, John 
Marshall entered upon a judicial career, to which, it is not too 
much to say, no other in history affords a parallel. 

Of that career, this is not the time nor the place to speak in 
detail. The estimate placed on his judicial labors by his contem- 
poraries, the lapse of two generations has confirmed : nor can 
that estimate be better stated than in the language of Mr. Justice 
Story, in dedicating to Marshall his Commentaries on the Consti- 
tution. 

"Other judges have attained an elevated reputation by similar 
labors in a single department of jurisprudence. But in one de- 
partment — it need scarcely be said that I allude to that of consti- 
tutional law — the common consent of x your countrymen has 
admitted you to stand without a rival. Posterity will surely con- 
firm by its deliberate award what the present age has approved as 
an act of undisputed justice." 

In July, 1835, death terminated his labors, and throughout 
the Union fitting expression was given to the veneration in which 
the great jurist was held by the bench and bar. I quote a single 
example from the resolutions unanimously adopted by the bar of 
Charleston, South Carolina, upon the motion of one of its most 
eminent members. 

"Even the spirit of party respected the unsullied purity of 
the Judge, and the fame of the Chief Justice has justified the 
wisdom of the Constitution and reconciled the jealousy of freedom 
to the independence of the judiciary." 

It is the praiseworthy aim of this Society not only to celebrate 
the deeds and to cherish the illustrious memory of the men of the 
Revolution, but to preserve and inculcate throughout the land 
the spirit of patriotism and wisdom and righteousness, by which 
those deeds were inspired and that memory has been consecrated. 
In that alone lies our hope as a people. To fail in that would be 
to undermine the foundations of the nation's life, to corrode and 
destroy its prosperity, and to invoke its doom under the inexora- 
ble law which governs the destinies of nations as of men. 



30 
Hon. EDWARD HERRICK ALLEN. 

"THE REVOLUTION: A MAKER OF THE PATH STRAIGHT 
FOR COMMERCIAL PROSPERITY." 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

The consideration of this sentiment very naturally suggests to 
us the contrasts in the motives under which the first seizures for 
settlement and possession of this new continent were made by the 
peoples of Europe. The conquests as they have been called, of 
that portion of the continent lying south of the southern line of 
our present state of Georgia, by the Spaniards, was under the de- 
sire for commercial advantage, and all other considerations were 
subordinate to this. The settlement of the valleys of the St. 
Lawrence and the Great Lakes b}' the French, was also under the 
desire of commercial gain; and magnificently heroic as were the 
explorations of French missionaries through the western water- 
ways of this portion of the continent, all this was incidental to the 
interest in the acquisition and control of the fur trade of the 
north. In contrast with these, in the occupation of the coast line 
between the Bay of Fundy and the southern line of Georgia, 
every settlement, if we except the settlement of Manhattan and 
the valley of the Hudson by the Dutch, was made under the de- 
sire of establishing a home of specified advantages, the question of 
trade and commerce being wholly secondary and subordinate, the 
natural incident and outgrowth of a fixed and settled community. 

In the light of these contrasts the results of to-day are signifi- 
cant. For to-day, whatever may be the eminence of Spanish 
America in literature, art and education, in the line of commercial 
prosperity she has fallen short of the results in our own United 
States. No one will deny that our own change from a collection 
of European Colonies into a consolidated independent government, 
whilst north and south of us the segregated colonial condition of 
the territory continued, is a significant feature in this difference. 
What the significance of this change is will readily appear when 
we remember that the navigation laws of the British Empire, which 
restrained and constrained the trade of the colonies for over one hun- 
dred years, prior to our assertion of independence, continued to 
lie without any essential change, the controlling navigation laws 



31 

of the British Empire for seventy years after the recognition of 
our independence. The essential feature of these laws which for 
two hundred years, held in hand the commerce of the British Em- 
pire were as follows: First, that only British ships should carry 
any merchandise from any port of the British Empire 
to any other port. Second, that no ship was considered 
a British ship that was not built wholly within the domin- 
ion of Great Britain and wholly owned by British subjects and 
managed by a British Commander with a crew of which at least 
three-fourths were British subjects. Third, that no goods which 
were the growth, product or manufacture of Asia, Africa or 
America, should be imported into any of the ports of Great 
Britain except in British ships or in ships of the country of which 
the goods were the products, whilst no British colony could trade 
direct even in her own ships with any continental European port 
north of Cape Finisterre. It is a significant fact that under these 
laws on the eve of our Revolution more than three-fourths of the 
ship tonnage employed in British commerce was of American con- 
struction. Although the Declaration of Independence in its long 
list of wrongs devotes only one line to these commercial restraints, 
there is abundant evidence that they were felt to be a serious bur- 
den upon our trading communities. The great opportunities that 
would be opened to us by our release from the control of Great 
Britain were clearly foreseen. 

On the 8th of January, 1776, the day when the King's bitter 
speech at the opening of Parliament reached America, there ap- 
peared in Philadelphia a pamphlet in favor of the independence of 
the colonies, entitled, "Common Sense." In this publication, 
were the following sentences touching the question of commerce: 
"Much has been said that Britain and the Colonies in conjunction 
might bid defiance to the world. What have we to do with set- 
ting the world at defiance? Our plan is commerce; and that will 
secure us the friendship of all Europe. It is the true interest of 
America to steer clear of European combinations which she never 
can do, whilst by her dependence on Britain she is the makeshift 
in the scale of British politics." In these sentences lies the key 
note to the future of the American colonies. In the recognition 
of the independence of the colonies, Lord Shelburne and his col- 



32 

leagues of the existing British Cabinet "were indefatigable in di- 
gesting a great and extensive system of trade, and sought by the 
emancipation of commerce to bring about with the Americans a 
family friendship more beneficial to England than their former de- 
pendence." In this effort they were opposed by the notable coal- 
ition of Fox and Burke with Lord North and the Tories. The 
closing words of Shelburne in defense of the treaty in the House 
of Lords are of interest: "If better terms could have been had, 
think you, my Lords, that I would not have embraced them ? If 
it had been possible to put aside the bitter cup which the adversi- 
ties of this countiy presented to me, you know I would have done 
it. The fur trade is not given up; it is only divided, and divided 
for our benefit. Its best resources lie to the northward. Monop- 
olies some way or other are ever justly punished. They forbid 
rivalry and rivalry is the very essence of the well being of trade. 
This seems to be the era of protestantism in trade. All Europe 
appears enlightened and eager to throw off the vile shackles of 
oppressive, ignorant, unmanly monopoly. It is always unwise, 
but if there is any nation under heaven who ought to be first to 
reject monopoly, it is the English. Situated as we are 
between the old world and the new and between southern 
and northern Europe, all that we ought to wish is equity 
and free trade. With more industry, with more enterprise, with 
more capital than any trading nation upon the earth, it ought to 
be our constant cry, 'Let every market be open;' let us meet out- 
rivals fairly and ask no more, telling the Americans that we de- 
sire to live with them in community of benefits and in sincerit}' of 
friendship." Shelburne and his colleagues were defeated and 
though the treaty of peace was recognized the new coalition min- 
istry determined to hold the surrendered colonies as subordinate 
dependencies in the world of commerce. The effort to subjugate 
by arms having failed, an effort to subjugate by trade followed. 

The condition of the colonies as to their future outlook is thus 
set forth from the English point of view in the following words 
of Dean Tucker of Gloucester: "As to the future grandeur of 
America, and its being a rising empire under one head, either re- 
publican or monarchical, it is one of the idlest and most visionary 
notions that ever was conceived even by the writers of romance. 



33 

The mutual antipathies and clashing interests of the Americans, 
their difference of governments, habitudes and manners, indicate 
that they will have no center of union and no common interest. 
They can never be united into one compact Empire under any 
species of government whatever; a disunited people till the end of 
time, suspicious and distrustful of each other, they will be divided 
and subdivided into little commonwealths or principalities accord- 
ing to natural boundaries by great bodies of the sea and by vast 
rivers, lakes and ridges of mountains." 

The five years of confusion that intervened between the recog- 
nized independence of the colonies and their consolidation under 
the adoption of the constitution showed that these expectations 
were not without warrant of fact. Carolina seeking a market for 
her rice and indigo, Virginia for her hemp and tobacco, New 
Hampshire for her timber and Massachusetts for her fish and oil, 
were but separate examples of the manifold diversities of interests 
that entered into every attempt to build up a commerce negotiable 
by thirteen independent principalities with the nations of the 
world. These diversities soon led to hostile trade rules between 
the colonies themselves : New York imposing burdensome regu- 
lations upon the trade of New Jersey and Rhode Island, for exam- 
ple. In this cross-fire of conflicting interests between the separate 
colonies and the separate nations of Europe, no satisfactory result 
of the commerce of the whole country could be secured. In the 
adoption of the constitution destroying all obstacles to the free- 
dom of trade between the states and committing to Congress the 
control of all foreign commerce the pathway to commercial pros- 
perity was made straight. Despite the continued interference of 
Great Britain and her attempt to subordinate the commerce of 
America, which were never wholly disposed of till a second war 
and the treaty of 1815, the growth of American commerce during 
the twenty years of conflict between England and Revolutionary 
and Napoleonic France, when we controlled the neutral trade of 
the world, shows what a pathway this was and how clearly Thomas 
Paine in his "Common Sense" foresaw the true career of America. 

Great as was the commercial opportunity to America because 
of the sundering of her colonial relations to Great Britain, the 
creation of free trade between the separate states under the constitu- 



34 

tion and the control of foreign commerce by the national govern- 
ment, our success in its wise improvement may well be questioned. 
Our government soon adopted the navigation laws of Great 
Britain from which she had been freed, with a few minor modifi- 
cations, and they still stand with an exception of two, of very late 
date, as the navigation laws of these states, though Great Britain 
repealed them forty years ago under wiser views of her true 
interest. 

The presence of so many sisters with us to-night, suggests 
another thought in this connection. A prosperous commercial com- 
munity has always been a gatherer of capital and the wise invest- 
ment of capital has been the basis of improvement in the centuries 
of life among men. The rarest and most valuable ability among 
men is the ability to discriminate confidently between a wise and 
unwise investment of capital, for on this discrimination rests the 
parting of the ways in national prosperity and perpetuity. Some 
years since a committee of ladies called upon the President of one 
of our largest corporations to solicit a change in one of the details 
of its management, and the leader began with an apology on the 
ground that as women out of business, they might be thought to 
have no proper ground from which to prefer their request. The 
president addressed checked the apology with the declaration that 
with his corporation women had the best of grounds for being 
heard, for the majority of the stock of the corporation was owned 
by women. Some days later this event was under discussion in 
the office of a broker in New York, and a gentleman present who 
was supposed to know whereof he spoke, said that the majority of 
the stock in the New York Central railroad was owned directly or 
indirectly by women. I have somewhere seen the statement, 
since made by one who claimed to have the right to speak with 
probable truth, that more than half the bonded debt of the United 
States was directly or indirectly owned by womeu. Directly, that 
is, registered in the names of women or held in the custody and 
ownership of women; or indirectly, that is. registered in names of 
men or corporations or in the custody and nominal ownership of 
nun, or corporations who were simply trustees,of whom the bene- 
ficiaries are women. As the investments <>t' capital control the 
work and enterprises of men, if the foregoing assumptions are to 



35 

be trusted, with the women of the world rests the balance of 
power to-day in the determination of the sales of bonds and stocks 
of the world and the consequent solvency of its heaviest brokers 
and bankers and constructions of railways and canals, the conduct 
of national affairs and at last the prosperity and perpetuity of our 
government. 

Pardon me, ladies, this is no gush of chivalric sentiment. It 
is true, profoundly true, that the sentiment of chivalry does right- 
fully bend the head and hand of every man to the service of your 
comfort and your pleasure. But all that I have said is the cool, 
unsentimental recognition of the facts of our human life as fixed 
and irrefragable as the centripedal and centrifugal forces that 
hold the numberless planets of the universe in the fixed orbits of 
their continued movement. 



ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Kansas City Chapter Sons of the Revolution, 

KANSAS CITY, OCTOBER 19, 1895. 



Hon. EDWARD HERRICK ALLEN. 

One hundred and fourteen years ago to-day at four o'clock 
in the afternoon, seven thousand, two hundred and forty-seven 
British regulars, with eight hundred and forty sailors, marched 
out of the fortifications of Yorktown and stacked arms in surren- 
der to seven thousand French soldiers and nine thousand colon- 
ial troops and militia men. The news of this brilliant event 
reached France on the 19th of November, and electrified all 
classes of the nation. It was known in London on the 25th of 
November, and it is reported that Lord North, then the Prime 
Minister, upon hearing the report, strode in anguish up and 
down his room, exclaiming many times, "It is all over," "It is 
all over." To measure the height of the joy in France or the 
depth of the sorrow in Britain, we must remind ourselves that 
at the beginning of the year 1781, France and Spain had become 
weary of the war, hopeless of any advantage in its continuance 
and desirous of peace, the outlook for the colonists was alto- 
gether discouraging. The British cabinet understood this situa- 
tion, and were confident that a successful campaign in Virginia 
would insure an advantageous peace and the restoration of the 
rebellious colonies to the control of the mother country. Lord 
Cornwallis' successful campaign through the Carolinas marked 
him out as the officer sure of success in the Virginia campaign. 

Five thousand picked British soldiers were furnished him 
and he marched into Virginia occupying Portsmouth, which he 
selected as the advantageous base of the summer's operations. 



38 

Sir Henry Clinton, the Commander-in-chief of the British 
forces in America, thought Point Comfort the more desirable 
position. Finally the Peninsula of York was selected as prefer- 
able to any other point, and on the first day of August Cornwallis 
received orders from Clinton to occupy the Peninsula of York 
with all his available forces, which order was promptly 
obeyed. At this time in addition to a local force of eight 
thousand men in camp at Yorktown under Cornwallis, the Brit- 
ish had over eighteen thousand men in aDd about New York, 
some scattered troops through the Carolinas and a large naval 
force in New York harbor and scattered along the Atlantic 
coast. To resist this force, Washington had about eight thou- 
sand troops in camp north of New York on the East bank of 
the Hudson, a small force under Lafayette in Virginia, watching 
Cornwallis, and the French had a strong naval force near the 
West Indies and a small force in the harbor at Newport, Rhode 
Island. The outlook was discouraging enough for the Colonists 
and the French. As soon as Lafayette realized that Cornwallis 
had abandoned Portsmouth and was concentrating his entire 
force on the Peninsula of York, he apprehended the fatality of 
the change for the British and the great opportunity given the 
French and Americans. He communicated his knowledge and 
opinion promptly to the Commander of the French fleet at the 
West Indies and to General Washington and wrote to Maure- 
pas, the French Minister, "Delay all negotiations for peace, 
await the result of the Virginia campaign. You will have 
brilliant news before the year ends." The West Indies fleet moved 
at once to the occupation of Chesapeake Bay and disembarked 
troops to aid Lafayette. Washington started at once for Virginia 
with his whole force. Under a feint of attacking New York City, 
he crossed the Hudson without opposition, and his troops were 
crossing the Delaware on their way south before Sir Henry Clin- 
ton realized their real purpose. Benedict Arnold w&s sent to 
devastate Connecticut in the vain hope of forcing Washington 
back. A naval force was despatched to drive the French out 
of Chesapeake Bay, but the British fleet was driven out to sea 
with the loss of three ships of the line. On the 28th of Septem- 
ter, Washington's army reached Williamsburgh and on the 30th 



39 

they were united with the command under Lafayette. On 
the 9th of October, the circumvallation of Cornwallis was com- 
plete. On the 11th the two chief redoubts of the British were 
taken by storm. On the 16th Cornwallis made a desperate but 
unsuccessful sortie. On the 17th he proposed to negotiate for 
surrender. On the 18th, the articles of capitulation were agreed 
upon and signed, and on the 19th as stated, the surrender was 
made. This, as Lord North said, closed the fighting of our war 
for independence. The British troops scattered through the 
south, fell back at once into the fortifications of Charleston and 
Savannah. The rest was a diplomatic contest over the terms of 
peace. On Christmas Day stubborn King George declared he 
would never consent to a peace recognizing the independence 
of the Colonies, but before spring his losing strength in the 
House of Commons forced him to dismiss the Cabinet of Lord 
North and to organize a new ministry under Rockingham, 
pledged to peace, even with independence. The preliminary arti- 
cles of peace with the Colonies were signed on the 4th of Decem- 
ber, 1782, so favorable that the French Minister upon a report of 
the details declared, "Great Britain has not made peace with its 
American Colonies, it has bought a peace from them.' 1 The 
preliminary articles of peace were signed by the Commissioners 
for Great Britain, France and Spain in February, 1783, and in 
September, 1783, all conditions were approved by the British 
Government and the independence of the American Colonies 
acknowledged one hundred and twelve years ago. 

It may interest you to know that the last surviving soldier 
of the Bevolution died in 1867, aged 106 years. We have still 
surviving sons and daughters of Revolutionary soldiers. 

The Societies of the Daughters of the American Bevolution 
have voted to give a souvenir spoon to every member of their 
Society who is a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. I am 
told they have during the current year delivered 42 such souv- 
enir spoons. Amoug the members of this Society who grace 
our table to night, there sits a recipient of one of these spoons. 
In this city there lives a lady, whose father was 25 years old at 
the outbreak of the war of the Revolution, served through the 



40 

war and lived over sixty years thereafter, living and dying in the 
county in which he was born. 

An incident in the surrender at Yorktown gave the oppor- 
tunity for an effective repartee by an American lady at a Lon- 
don dinner eighty years afterward. Lord Cornwallis remained 
in his tent during this 19th day of October, placing the sur- 
rendering troops under command of Major General O'Hara. 
This necessitated the selection by Washington of a subordinate 
officer to receive at the hands of General O'Hara the evacuat- 
ing army. This service was performed by Major General Ben 
jamin Lincoln of Massachusetts. At a dinner in the city of 
London, after the news of the election of Abraham Lincoln to 
the Presidency of the United States was known there, an 
English gentleman undertook to chaff an American lady present 
upon the insignificance of the newly elected President. Among 
other chaffing queries and remarks, he said he could not recol- 
lect any eminent family of Lincoln in America. "Your Lord- 
ship," promptly came the reply, "seems to have forgotten the 
General Benjamin Lincoln who received the surrendered sword 
of Cornwallis at Yorktown." 



Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D. D. 

"PATRIOTISM IN WAR IS PUBLIC SPIRIT 
IN PEACE." 

Thomas Carlyle has somewhere said: "The ultimate ques- 
tion between every two human beings is, can I kill thee or canst 
thou kill me?" That utterance is characteristic of Mr. Carlyle' s 
exaggerated and at times, somewhat hysterical style, but it is 
after all a striking statement of a generic fact in human history. 
The struggle for existence and for precedence has been fierce and 
long, and it still goes on. 

Mr. Darwin describes man's immediate ancestor as "a hairy, 
tailed quadruped, probably aboreal in its habits." I may say 
in passing, Sir, that it has been remarked that if this an- 
cestor of ours was aboreal in his habits, it is highly probable 
that in the course of his education he became familiar with 



41 

the higher branches ; — but however that may be, it is certain that 
existence for the creature meant continual struggle; and that if it 
ever became anything better than "a hairy, tailed quadruped with 
aboreal habits," struggle was not only the price but the occasion 
of the ascent. Certainly the early savage man lived by struggle, 
and by it he was made. We cannot read the history of the past, 
as the theory of evolution writes it, without perceiving that the 
struggle for life has been, and is, a first necessity of progress. 
Nor can we watch human life about us without having the same 
conclusion forced upon us. Degeneration begins when struggle 
ceases and reversal towards the original type takes place. Of 
this may not a young man of a certain type be an illustration? 
He toils not neither does he spin ; he never contends for anything ; 
in principle he stands for nothing, and so in his very appearance, 
the dude of all nations, even of the first generation, seems visibly 
to approximate some anthropoid progenitor. It is plain, whatever 
our hypothesis of origins, that it is true as claimed, that not only 
life and struggle, but health and struggle, growth and struggle, 
and progress and struggle, have always gone together; and that in 
the later stages of humanity, morality and struggle, and even re- 
ligion and struggle are linked together in inseparable and neces- 
sary connection. 

Patriotism is no exception to this law, for the fact remains 
as true in the life of the community as of the individual, in na- 
tional as in personal history. Walter Bagehot in his "Physics 
and Politics" has a chapter on the "Uses of Conflict." That is a 
suggestive title. It is a fact that through conflict nations are 
elevated, trained, developed. This conflict has been on every 
possible arena; it has been continually on the battle-field. We 
must acknowledge that in nation-making war has been a powerful 
and constant factor; and that through war has often come the 
training which has made a people not only strong but noble. 
This is not to advocate war, nor to say that it is even a necessary 
part of national training. The horrors of any war are unspeak- 
able. Some of you to-night wear insignia other than of the 
Sons of the Revolution. You have had actual contact with the 
scenes of war. You know what war means, and you, least of all 
men, desire war's return. Sometimes in your dreams you 



42 

cry out as thousands did in their waking hours, only a genera- 
tion ago:- 

"O the weary marching men, 
O the brutal bellowing guns, 
O the gory fields, when the land lies drunk 
With the blood of her slaughtered sons ! 
How long O Lord, how long, 
How long before Thy day, 
Ere the angel of peace shall come again, 
And brothers shall cease to slay?" 

Surely my comrades we do not forget the fields where "gar- 
ments were rolled in blood and the earth covered her slain." We 
do not forget the spectacle of the great army hospital, nor the 
mourning and sorrow carried to numberless households. In the 
good time coming there will be no wars, but after all, after all, 
we are sure that there are worse things than war. A peace pur- 
chased at the expense of principle, and honor, and justice, and lib- 
erty, and national life, is worse than war, is a peace ignoble and 
unworthy, out of which with a thrill as of divine life true men 
sometimes 

"Wake to the higher aims 
Of a land that has lost for a little her lust of gold 
And love of a peace that was full of wrongs and shames 
Horrible, hateful, monstrous, not to be told : 
And hail once more to the banner of battle unrolled! 
Tho' many a light shall darken, and many shall weep 
For those that are crushed in the clash of jarring claims, 
Yet many a darkness into the light shall leap 

******* 
And shine in the sudden making of splendid names, 
And noble thought be freer under the sun, 
And the heart of a people beat with one desire." 

When a whole people lifts itself up to undertake together a 
desperate and noble task, fighting for self-preservation, for truth, 
for freedom, for justice, all the great ennobling passions of hu- 
manity are called into play, and so the nation gets education and 
uplift. There is besides, in the soldiers themselves of such a 
war, training in the soldierly virtues, in obedience, patience, en- 
durance, honor, intrepidity, courage, self-sacrifice, qualities all 
much needed to counteract the enervating influences of commerce 
and luxury in degenerate days of peace. 



43 

What great principle ever triumphed without great self-sac- 
rifice? None in all history. We do not enjoy to-day a solitary 
privilege, civil or religious, which is not perfumed with the suf- 
fering and heroic valor of those who have gone before us. 

If now patriotism in war is to be public spirit in peace, of what 
sort must that public spirit be ? The patriotism that flamed forth in 
war was no passive, calculating quality. It was positive, self-as- 
sertive, generous. It had a definite programme; it meant busi- 
ness, it was ready to fight, if need be, and to keep fighting; to 
lose occupation, home, life itself if it must, to gain its end. Self- 
sacrifice without limit, and unbounded courage, were the charac- 
teristics of the patriotism of the fathers of the revolution. What 
is patriotism in war? Ask Saratoga and Valley Forge. Ask the 
men who after seven years of fighting stood in line in their 
ragged regimentals 114 years ago to-day to receive the surrender 
of Cornwallis and his army. What then is the public spirit in 
peace that is worthy to be the continuation of the patriotism of 
the fathers in war ? Surely it must have in it the same qualities 
of courage and self-sacrifice, and it must recognize the fact that 
conflict is still a necessary condition of progress. 

My contention, Mr. President and companions all, is, that 
struggle is necessary to preserve what struggle has won. 

We must infuse this element into our public spirit or it will 
be but a feeble expression of patriotism, nay, a travesty and mockery 
of the strenuous and exalted spirit of your "firm-pulsed sires." 

There is room and need for toil and hard fighting in the 
service of country in time of peace as well as in time of war. 
We live in a day when relief of suffering is the popular virtue 
when charity is highly honored, and naturally public spirit 
takes on these forms. There is danger lest the great indigna- 
tions of our nature against wrong perish, lest the fire and fibre of 
noble virtue be lost in good-natured acquiesence with evil, until our 
morals and our politics alike, become a "mush of concessions." The 
oppositions in the moral world are as inherent and necessary as 
those of the elements in the physical world. Opposition to evil is 
only the other side of the choice of goodness. You cannot have one 
without the other, and the strength of the one will be the measure 
of the strength of the other. If you will tell me how I can love 



44 

my country and not oppose those who would destroy her, I will 
tell you how there can be a magnetic needle with the positive 
pole pointing to the north, and no negative pole pointing in the 
opposite direction. 

If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, perpetual struggle 
is its defense, for of what use is the watchfulness which lifts no 
voice or hand when danger threatens? We all, here met to-night — 
Sons and Daughters of the Revolution — come of fighting stock. 
This is something, but the fight is still on, and to lend a hand 
to-day is more and better. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, 
but the enemies of free government are vigorous and defiant in 
Missouri. 

A battle call is often the only key note to success in moral 
conflict. As occasion requires, let the issue for righteousness be 
squarely joined ; let the will of the leaders be like a trumpet call 
to war, and the people will rally to the standard. They will rally 
to the standard in a fight for righteousness, as they did for 
the overthrow of Tammany, as they did to put down the 
Mayor Hopkins regime, as pestilent as Tammany, in Chicago. 
Of course the work of building is as needful, and always more 
noble than that of defense of destruction, but the time has not 
yet come when we can build our walls otherwise than they of 
Nehemiah's time built Zion, when "every one with one of his 
hands wrought in the work, and with the other held his weapon." 

James Russell Lowell, at the end of the civil war, in the 
great access of joy and hope and love which filled many a patri- 
otic breast, closed his magnificent commemoration ode with this 
impassioned personification and consecration :- 

"O Beautiful ! my Country ! ours once more ! 
Smoothing thy gold of war-dishevelled hair 
O'er such sweet brows as never other wore, 

And letting thy set lips, 

Freed from wrath's pale eclipse, 
The rosy edges of their smile lay bare, 
What words divine of lover or of poet 
Could tell our love and make thee know it, 
Among the Nations bright beyond compare? 

What were our lives without thee? 

What all our lives to save thee? 

We reck not what we gave thee; 

We will not dare to doubt thee, 
But ask whatever else, and we will dare !" 



45 

Can you not imagine the scornful curl of the lip with which 
the self-indulgent, easy-going pessimistic club man — and the 
self-indulgent man is wont to be pessimistic — would read those 
lines? That is surely a sentiment which kid glove and rose 
water critics of our republican institutions would not in the least 
understand; but thank God, there are tens of thousands of men 
and women in the broad land, South and North, East and West, 
who do understand it, and would utter it with brimming hearts 
and eyes. It will also be a fitting and welcome utterance for 
those Americans who come after us, if only we can lead them, 
following our example, to undertake in tbeir time, the toil, and 
sacrifice, and struggle, which are needful to preserve what toil, 
and sacrifice, and struggle have won. 



Hon. JOSEPH VAN CLIEF KARNES. 

" PRINCIPLE." 

One hundred and fourteen years ago to-day Cornwallis sur- 
rendered. Though definite articles were not signed until Sep- 
tember 3, 1783, with this event the great victory had been won. 
King George refused to negotiate with the representatives of the 
Continental Congress, and said that "blows must decide," and 
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world as to the rectitude 
of their intentions, the issue tendered was accepted by our fathers. 
We have no record of a similar war. It had not a commercial 
feature connected with it. Notwithstanding the arraignment in 
the Declaration of Independence, yet viewed from the standpoint 
of the present, after the lapse of more than a century, when all 
passion has subsided, the conclusion is plain that a people of less 
earnest convictions could, without great sacrifice, have accommo- 
dated themselves to the demands of the mother country. Many 
of the disputes had yielded to petition or diplomacy. One by one 
the onerous duties had been removed, the stamp act was repealed ) 
the right to quarter troops had been abandoned, England was 
ready to yield to everything except a surrender of the inherent 
right, as it claimed, to legislate for the Colonies. Threepence 
a pound upon tea was not a grievous burden, but it carried with 



46 

it a governmental principle of transcendent importance. Lord 
Mansfield, in expressing his opinion, said "The people of America 
are as bound to obey the acts of the British Parliament as the 
inhabitants of London or Middlesex." The demand of the King 
was, "that there shoirld always be one tax, at least, to keep up 
the right of taxing." British statesmen of all schools claimed 
this right, and in the assertion of it the tax on tea was sustained. 
On the other hand the Colonists insisted that "by the theory of 
the British Constitution taxation and consent by representation 
are inseparable correlatives," and denied the unqualified author- 
ity of a legislature in which they were not represented. This 
contention was not confined to taxation alone, but extended to all 
legislation, thus making representation and legislation insepar- 
able. The American Colonies had no representatives in the 
British Parliament, and hence the right of Parliament to legis- 
late in any way affecting the Colonies was strenuously denied. 
Never was a line of battle more clearly drawn and the opposing 
forces represented the best of Saxon blood. The two special 
points in controversy were the right of Parliament to tax the Col- 
onies, and the right to change their charters at pleasure. Lord 
North was willing to restore the charter of Massachusetts, but 
the King declared that rather than do so he would renounce the 
Colonies entirely. So all negotiations were focused on this one 
right of legislation. The colonies at one time would have been 
willing to have forgotten the past wrongs, but after Lexington 
and Concord and Bunker Hill, they came to the throne, not on 
bended knee, but with an open demand for their rights. As has 
been strongly stated, "their vigorous vitality refused conformity 
to foreign laws and external rule." This was not through 
hatred of England, but because they loved truth the more. His- 
tory does not warrant the assertion made by the English leaders 
that every demand made by the Colonies was only to prepare the 
way for independence. Had the right of local government been 
guaranteed to them, this whole land of ours would today be 
under the British flag. 

The seven years of privation and hardship and blood were 
dedicated to one principle alone, and that was that all govern- 
ments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. 



47 

What has since followed in giving form and strength to the re- 
public, has simply been an application of that principle. While 
upon such occasions as this we are recalling the wonderful 
achievements of our revolutionary ancestors, we should even 
more keep in mind the cardinal doctrine which vitalized their he- 
roism, and in yielding veneration to their personality almost to 
the verge of ancestral worship, let our homage be still greater 
for the immortal doctrines which they declared. Men may come 
and men may go, but a great truth, like the brook, goes on 
forever. 

Of the ultimate, full and complete realization of the doctrine 
that legislation and representation are inseparable, there ought 
to be no doubt. Wherever the voice of the people is heard at all 
the demand is loud and constant for an enlarged suffrage. No 
step has been, or ever will, be taken backward. Efforts may be 
made to deny representation to large classes of the people on the 
specious plea that the safety of society demands it. This may be 
promising in the bud, but in the blossom there lies political 
death. The measure of a nation is not the intelligence and vir- 
tue of the highest, nor that of the lowest, but it is represented by 
the general average. The purpose of government is the greatest 
good to the greatest number. The strong must help carry the 
weak, and thus the whole body politic be borne along. The law 
in its application touches each individual, and if he would be a 
free man, his contribution to the common intelligence, which 
finds expression in the law of the land, ought to be received. 
Take away from a man his voice in the government, and you have 
forged the first link in his chain of bondage. Make him a par- 
ticipant, and you place in his hand a weapon with which every 
aggression may be resisted. 

This principle of the "fathers of the Kepublic cannot be too 
clearly kept in view. I am no pessimist, but it is proper to ob- 
serve the dangers that lie hidden along the line of the nation's 
progress. It may be that in conserving the material welfare, in 
enacting laws in the interests of property, the highest well-being 
of the individual has been subordinated. The immortal signers 
of the Declaration of Independence, looked alone to life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness. It was to protect these that they 



48 

declared that representation should go hand in hand with legisla- 
tion. Whatever policy makes the best men, irrespective of all 
other considerations, that is the line to follow. 

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 

In the exercise of the franchise there is a consciousness of 
responsibility. The voter feels that he is a component part of 
the State. Its glory is his glory, and its honor is his honor. 
Kestricted suffrage is simply oligarchy, and equally indefensible 
in principle. If we would follow the teachings of the fathers 
whose heroic deeds we to-night celebrate, the next step forward 
logically ought now be taken. "Where theory leads, practice 
should follow. One-half of the people of this country, and cer- 
tainly we will all agree the better half, just as amenable to the 
law as the other, stands without representation, and have the 
same grounds of complaint as did Samuel Adams and Patrick 
Henry and their compatriots of the Revolution. The intellectual 
inferiority of woman can be no longer urged. Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, Harvard and Columbia, and the other great universities 
are opening their doors for her full admission. Vassar and 
Smith, Wellesley and Barnard, in science, literature, philosophy, 
offer to her courses of study covering the widest range. Women 
are filling chairs in the best colleges in the land. They are in 
the pulpit, at the bar, in medicine. In the thousand school 
rooms the youth of the land are at her feet. She owns property 
and pays taxes. She is in the bank, counting room, the store, 
the office, and, best of all, she is in the home, the companion, the 
helpmeet, the thoughtful adviser of her husband, the instructor 
and guide of her children. They have lives to be protected, 
property interests to be guarded, personal rights to be guaran- 
teed. When the colonists complained that they had no repre- 
sentatives in the English Parliament, Grenville's reply was, 
while they had no individual, they had a collective representa- 
tion. Just so the slaves of the South had a supposed vcice in 
Congress by the increased representation given to the master. 
That women are represented through and by the opposite sex is 
just as fallacious. In insisting upon the complete enforcement 
of the great cardinal principle of free government, I plead for no 



49 

"new woman," but for an intelligent, faithful, earnest American 
woman, knowing her rights and insisting upon them, loving her 
country and its institutions as she loves her home and her family. 
If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the 
governed, why stand halting in the full application of this recog- 
nized, self-evident political truth ? 

What this country needs more than anything else today is 
more political courage, the revival of that love of principle, that 
spirit of martyrdom, that unyielding assertion of right possessed 
by the fathers of the Republic. It may well be doubted whether 
the present Boston, with her intimate trade relations with Great 
Britain, could be induced to throw ship loads of tea into the 
harbor whatever might be the provocation. The men who defied 
King George with all his mercenaries never counted the cost of a 
movement, or considered its expediency. It was then as it will 
ever be, that between right and wrong there is no ground of 
compromise, and standing on this rock they were unmoved by 
fear of the consequences. That dauntless courage, inflexible 
purpose, and rugged patriotism which characterized their every 
action needs to be cherished. If the spirit of '76 could possess 
the civilization of today, we would need no reform parties. It is 
now as it was then, the demand is for men to stand bravely out 
for the right, and while they may learn to speak the truth in 
love, always speak the truth. If the enemies that threaten our 
safety are to be destroyed, it must be done by brave men, strong 
in their faith, who love country above party, and who love man- 
hood and womanhood more than hoarded grain. 

Political bosses want to be dethroned, and all forms of de- 
feating the will of the people rebuked and punished. Fraud upon 
the ballot box, the mouthpiece of the people, covert or open, aims 
at the life of the state, and should be classed as treason. To ac- 
complish all this it will ba necessary to lay aside our selfishness 
and cultivate a higher citizenship, form higher ideals of states- 
men, and require a more faithful public service. This edifice of 
free government, with the will of the people as its corner-stone, 
is still building, and to give it strength and beauty and sym- 
metry, calls for earnest, faithful work. 

Its success depends not upon the results in material prosper- 



50 

ity — that has already been assured — but upon the intelligence 
and virtue of the people. Unless free government makes better 
men and better women, its mission has failed. For 

"What constitutes a state? 

Not high raised battlements or labored mound, 
Thick wall or moated gate, 

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned, 
Not bays and broad armed ports, 

Where laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; 
Not starred and spangled courts, 

No: Men, high minded men, 
Men, who their duties know, 

But knowing their rights, and knowing, dare maintain — 
These constitute a state." 



Hon. JAMES LAWRENCE BLAIR. 

"PATRIOTISM THE BEST LEGACY OF THE 
REVOLUTION." 

Permit me, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, to con- 
gratulate you upon the selection of this day as the time of your 
annual gathering. It is a day conspicuous in our country's 
annals; it is second only to that which commemorates the birth 
of our national independence; and it should ever stand as one of 
the liberty landmarks in the Nation's life; for if, on July 4th, 
1776, the nation was born, it was on October 19th, 1781, that it 
emerged from the baptism of fire and blood which vindicated its 
right to a name and a place among the great family of nations. 

One hundred and fourteen years ago, when the sun set on 
the field of Yorktown, the long struggle was ended — the fight 
was won. National independence was no longer a mere hope, 
embittered by long delay, but an accomplished fact; for when 
Lord North learned of the surrender of Cornwallis, he said: "It 
is all over." And though there was afterwards some fighting, 
that striking picture of the British Commander delivering his 
sword, the emblem of his power, to Washington, was really the 
last scene in the great drama of the war, that war, unparalleled 
in bitterness, whose changing fortune had at length declared for 
the weak, but devoted patriots in their desperate struggle for 
principle against power, and which has added one more monu- 



51 

ment to that imperishable spirit of liberty which is the glory of 
the Anglo-Saxon race. 

The story of the struggle for independence is one which we 
never tire of hearing. Its smallest details are hallowed to us 
by association with names which have become synonymous with 
the greatest virtues, and there is no true American but whose 
heart throbs when he reads again the impressive lines, written 
in blood and anguish, which tell of the privations and the death 
of those consecrated heroes who suffered and died that our 
country might live. The throes of that mighty contest, though 
more than one hundred years have passed since the last gun was 
fired, are felt to-day in the heart of every true citizen of the 
Republic. Who of us can read to-day of the calm and impres- 
sive bearing, the moral grandeur of Washington, in the 
anguish of soul which he endured in danger and defeat, without 
a thrill of pride in the thought that we have at least that in com- 
mon with him that we, too, are Americans. Who can read of 
the daring deeds of Greene and Warren without being proud to 
be numbered among those for whom these valiant deeds were 
done. Who of us but exults while we recall the fortitude and 
valor of Putnam, of Stark and of Anthony Wayne, that in the 
achievements and above all, in the character of these men, we 
have our portion as joint heirs of the glories of the American 
Revolution. 

But is not needful at this time that I should speak more in 
detail of these events. It is to the credit of American scholar- 
ship and educational institutions that the history of these times 
is so well preserved and is made one of the salient parts of the 
instruction of our youth, and the fact that I am here to-night to 
address this organization is of itself at once a reason for brevity 
and for congratulation, since our existence as a Society consti- 
tutes a guaranty of the perpetuation of the details of the great 
struggle for liberty. I count it on© of the most assuring signs 
of the times that though more than a century has passed since 
these stirring events became history, the spirit which actuated 
our forefathers in the doing of these mighty deeds is still 
potent to honor and to immortalize the memory of those who did 
them. 



52 

But while we need not rehearse the oft-told story, it is well 
that we should consider what was the underlying thought, the 
motive which stirred men's souls so that they wrought these 
things; for it is not the deed itself, it is the spirit which prompts 
it that gives it value to humanity. We do not celebrate the vic- 
tories of Alexander, of Caesar, or of Napoleon, for theirs were 
mere wars for conquest, prompted by ambition, deluging the 
world with blood and working no good to the human race; but 
the defense of Thermopylae, the death of Arnold Winkelried, 
will be sung and praised so long as poets and historians shall 
live, because the spirit that was in these men was not the selfish 
greed of conquest, but steadfast devotion to principle and willing- 
ness to die in its behalf. In a word that motive was patriotism. 
And it is of this in its broader sense that I wish to speak tonight. 

There are some words which we use so often that we do not 
fully appreciate their meaning. Patriotism is one of them. It 
is generally defined as love of country, and perhaps, if we under- 
stand that in its widest application, the definition will suffice. 
But in every-day life I fear that most of us restrict its meaning 
to the willingness to do battle for our country in case of need; I 
believe that this meaning, though one of its best, is by no means 
comprehensive. In its broadest sense patriotism means not only 
the willingness to die for one's country, but the willingness to 
live for it and to work for it. Countries, especially countries 
like ours, do not often need to be died for, but they do need to 
have all their citizens live their whole lives devoted to their coun- 
try's interests. Laws, institutions, even individual virtues, will 
not suffice either to make or to preserve a commonwealth 
unless those laws and institutions be guarded with a jeal- 
ous care, and unless those individual virtues be applied to public 
as well as private affairs. It is a hard saying, but it is true nev- 
ertheless, that many a man has one conscience in respect of his 
dealings with his fellow men and another in his dealings with 
the Government. Instances are not wanting where men of uniin- 
peached, if not unimpeachable integrity in business, have not 
hesitated to smuggle merchandise through the customs, to vote 
for a back salary grab or a fraudulent subsidy, to draw an un- 
earned pension, to reap the benefit of a more than doubtful Gov- 



53 

ern merit contract, and to pay political debts by the gift of public 
office; in a word, we are all of us for the old flag, but there are a 
great many of us, too, who are for the old flag and an appropri- 
aiion. 

Now these things are not only dishonorable in themselves, 
but are they not essentially disloyal and unpatriotic? The Gov- 
ernment and its agencies represent the Commonwealth and what 
more absurd than to say that one would die for the Common- 
wealth, yet he will rob it of what is its just due! 

- Again, our laws and our institutions are justly our chief 
pride. Yet of what value are these laws or institutions, of what 
permanence can they be unless we give them the time and atten- 
tion, the capacity both of head and heart necessary to maintain 
them? The narrowest construction of patriotism is devotion to 
the institutions of the commonwealth ; if devotion means any- 
thing, it means our best service ; yet is it not true that while we 
are all ready to fight for our country, very few of us, and that 
few by no means the best qualified, are willing to serve her in 
any but the most exalted positions? And true as this is of our 
National Government, it is even more so of our states and mu- 
nicipalities. It is a notorious fact that the best men can rarely 
be induced to take part in the actual labor of government. Other 
things pay better, they say, and so they go on in the scramble 
for wealth and leave the business of government to venal poli- 
ticians. And it is a fact equally notorious that a very large pro- 
portion of our people will not even take the trouble to register as 
voters, and if registered will not take the time to vote. As for 
participating in primaries and caucuses, the most important part 
of the whole system, a citizen who does that does it at the peril 
of being considered either a political trickster or a fool. And so, 
especially in our large cities, as the best men will neither hold 
office nor take the trouble to elect good officials, we find that the 
machinery of government is almost wholly in the hands of men 
of small capacity, and often, alas, of no character. These are 
facts which carry amazement to the minds of all intelligent for- 
eigners who have studied our institutions, and which among 
others have led one of the most intelligent of these to declare 
that our whole system of government, so far as municipalities 



54 

are concerned, is a failure. They cannot understand a patriotism 
which will make men die in defense of the Union and yet refuse 
the small concession of time and trouble necessary to perfect and 
preserve its institutions. 

I mention these few instances because I deem them typical 
of a condition of public morals amongst us which imperils the 
foundation of patriotism, for it has been well said that " Love of 
country alone is not able to maintain liberty. The people must 
be trained in the practical conduct of local government and ani- 
mated by intelligent public spirit." 

1 am well aware that the excuse of most of us is that we 
haven't the time to give to public affairs. In other words, in the 
mad rush to turn every conceivable thing into money, we are sac- 
rificing that for which our forefathers died and which came to us 
as a heritage upon the sacred condition that we preserve and 
honor these institutions in the same spirit in which they were 
founded. 

The Nation is but an aggregation of individuals and the Com- 
monwealth is but the united interests of all. Loyalty to the 
Commonwealth means loyalty to every part of it, from the Presi- 
dency of the United States to the pettiest municipal office. Civic 
pride, conscientious discharge of local political duty, are as es- 
sential to true patriotism as the larger sentiment which includes 
the whole Nation. I need not tell you that infidelity of the in- 
dividual to the Commonwealth means its dissolution. The repub- 
lics of Greece and Rome perished from the earth because venality 
and self interest sapped the patriotism of their citizens. The 
German Empire exists today because of the loyalty of its people 
not only to the "Fatherland," but to every city, town and hamlet 
in it; and the greatness of Great Britain is due in large measure 
to the fact that her people deem it an honor to serve her in office 
and are unsparing of their time and means in the maintenance of 
every one of her institutions. Englishmen are willing to serve 
their country not only at the cannon's mouth, but in Parliament, 
without pay, in municipal office or as country squir«. AVe 
Americans seem to feel that when we have twisted the Brifish 
lion's tail and made our American eagle scream we have done all 
that patriotism requires and can relegate the business of the 



55 

Government to men whom we would not deem fit to employ in 
any responsible business office. 

Now is not this a back-sliding from the glorious precedents 
set by our forefathers, who not only fought in time of national 
peril, but who were also willing to sacrifice their personal inter- 
ests in close attention to the details of government? They knew 
that a government is not a thing which will run itself; that it is a 
complicated machine which requires the closest study and most 
painstaking labor; and while no one will deny that the heroism 
which makes a man willing to die in battle is both good and 
great, yet the spirit that makes a man sacrifice his 
wealth, his prospects, his ease, and devote himself to the public 
service, is no small virtue. The history of the world would not 
be what it is were it not for the unseen heroisms; those which 
are not chronicled in books, but which have counted largely in 
the progress of humanity. The heroes of the Revolution are 
not all named in the roster of the American armies; and 
the patriotism which has inspired us for more than a century 
was found in many places other than the field of battle. Wash- 
ington, the soldier, is no greater than Washington, the citizen, 
for it is one of the best attributes of that marvelous man, that he 
was as true to his country in the smallest detail of citizenship as 
in the bloodiest battle he ever fought. And to this fidelity, in 
both Washington and his associates, we are as much indebted for 
the success of our institutions after our liberty was won as we are 
for its achievement. 

I would not have you think me despairing of the present or 
doubtful of the future. I know the hearts of the American 
people too well to believe that these evils are due to any but 
transient causes. I would but remind you that without eternal 
vigilance this fair fabric which we call our State cannot perma- 
nently endure; that while we have no battles to fight, no wilder- 
ness to reclaim and no states to found, we have a higher, nobler 
duty even than these. We are at once the trustees and the bene- 
ficiaries of the memory of the devoted dead and of the spirit of 
liberty for which they died. No self-glorification, no complacent 
self-satisfaction that we are the greatest and best of nations will 
keep us up to their lofty standard. Nations no more than men 



56 

are taken at their own estimate of themselves. Individual char- 
acter, elevated public morals, honorable conduct, fidelity to these 
heroic ideals, local as well as national patriotism, all these are 
needful to discharge our trust and to cherish our inheritance ; and 
this Society, tracing its lineage and as it does to the fountain head 
of our national life, is charged with a special mission ; a mission 
in the fulfillment of which it will best refute that false charge 
that it is an effort to re-establish caste. That mission is to com- 
memorate not only the names and the deeds of our heroic fore- 
fathers, but in our own lives to perpetuate their sturdy rectitude, 
their clean-handed public dealing, their fidelity to public trusts 
and that spirit of high endeavor which made them good soldiers, 
good citizens, and, best of all, good men. Our best heritage 
from them is not freedom, but those virtues, that exalted spirit, 
which we call patriotism, which alone makes men worthy to be 
free. 



EXEGI MONUMENTUM AERE PERENNIUS. 




SERVICE 

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY i6,A.D. 1896, 

Commemorative 



OF THE BIRTH OF 



George Washington 

First Congregational Church, Kansas City. 
MDCCCXCVI. 



The Service will be Conducted by 

Rev. Clarence Walworth Backus, D. D. 

Kansas Citv Chapter Sons of the Revolution. 



A FORM 

OF 

Prayer and Thanksgiving 

TO 

ALMIGHTY GOD 

FOR 

THE BIRTH 



OF 



George Washington 



SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR KANSAS CITY CHAPTER 



Sons of the Revolution 




First Congregational Church 
kansas city. 

Sunday the Sixteenth Day of February 
MDCCCXCVI. 



PROCESSIONAL HYMN. 



THE Son of God goes forth to war, 
A kingly crown to gain; 
His blood-red banner streams afar: 

Who follows in his train? 
Who best can drink his cup of woe, 

And triumph over pain, 
Who patient bares his cross below — 
He follows in his train. 

The martyr first, whose eagle eye 

Could pierce beyond the grave, 
Who saw his Master in the sky, 

And called on him to save: 
Like him, with pardon on his tongue, 

In midst of mortal pain, 
He prayed for them that did the wrong: 

Who follows in his train? 

A glorious band, the chosen few, 

On whom the Spirit came: 
Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew, 

And mock'd the cross and flame: 
They met the tyrant's brandish'd steel, 

The lion's gory mane; 
They bow'd their necks the death to feel : 

Who follows in their train? 

A noble army, men and boys, 

The matron and the maid, 
Around the Saviour's throne rejoice, 

In robes of light array'd; 
They climb'd the steep ascent of heaven 

Through peril, toil, and pain: 
O God! to us may grace be given 

To follow in their train! 



A FORM 

OF 

PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING. 

1 First shall be sung the following Hymn. 

OGOD, our help in ages past, 
Our hope for years to come, 
Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
And our eternal home. 

Before the hills in order stood, 

Or earth received her frame, 
From everlasting thou art God, 

To endless years the same. 

A thousand ages in thy sight 

Are like an evening gone, 
Short as the watch that ends the night 

Before the rising sun. 

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, 

Bears all its sons away; 
They fly forgotten, as a dream 

Dies at the opening day. 

O God, our help in ages past, 

Our hope for years to come, 
Be thou our guard while troubles last, 

And our eternal home. 

*! 'Then the [Minister shall read the following sentences of Holy 
Scripture. 

THE Lord is in his Holy Temple; let all the earth 
keep silence before him. — Habakkuk ii. 20. 
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers 



have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in 
the times of old. — Psalm xliv. i. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and 
the people whom he hath chosen for his own inherit- 
ance. — Psalm xxxiii. 12. 

The Lord ordereth a good man's going, and mak- 
eth his way acceptable to himself. — Psalm xxxvii. 23. 

Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, 
to dwell together in unity! — Psalm cxxxiii. 1. 

T Then the [Minister shall say, 

The Lord be with you. 
Answer. And with thy spirit. 
Minister. Let us pray. 

1" Then, all kneeling, the Minister and the people shall say the 
Lord's Prayer. 

OUR Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy 
Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done 
on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily 
bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive 
those who trespass against us. And lead us not into 
temptation; But deliver us from evil: For thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and 
ever. Amen. 

• Then likewise he shall 

O Lord, open thou our lips. 

Answer. And our mouth shall show forth thy 
praise. 

1 Here, all standing up, the Minister shall say, 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 
Holy Ghost. 



Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and 
ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 
Minister. Praise ye the Lord. 
A?iswer. The Lord's Name be praised. 

^T T})en shall be read responsively the i4jth Psalm, followed by 
the Gloria Patri. 

O PRAISE the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing 
praises unto our God; yea, a joyful and pleasant 
thing it is to be thankful. 

2. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, and gather 
together the outcasts of Israel. 

3. He healeth those that are broken in heart, and 
giveth medicine to heal their sickness. 

4. He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth 
them all by their names. 

5. Great is our Lord, and great is his power; yea, 
and his wisdom is infinite. 

6. The Lord setteth up the meek, and bringeth the 
ungodly down to the ground. 

7. O sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing- 
praises upon the harp unto our God; 

8. Who covereth the heaven with clouds, and pre- 
pareth rain for the earth; and maketh the grass to 
grow upon the mountains, and herb for the use of men ; 

9. Who giveth fodder unto the cattle, and feedeth 
the young ravens that call upon him. 

10. He hath no pleasure in the strength of an horse; 
neither delighteth he in any man's legs. 

1 1. But the Lord's delight is in them that fear him, 
and put their trust in his mercy. 

12. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, 
O Zion. 

13. For he hath made fast the bars of thy gates, 
and hath blessed thy children within thee. 



14. He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee 
with the flour of wheat. 

15. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth, 
and his word runneth very swiftly. 

16. He giveth snow like wool, and scattereth the 
hoar-frost like ashes. 

17. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who is 
able to abide his frost? 

18. He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: 
he bloweth with his wind, and the waters flow. 

19. He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes 
and ordinances unto Israel. 

20. He hath not dealt so with any nation; neither 
have the heathen knowledge of his laws. 

Followed by 
Gloria Patri. 
Then shall be read for the Lesson the EIGHTH CHAPTER OF THE 
Book Deuteronomy, followed by the 

Cantate Domino. 

T))en shall be said the Apostle's Creed,fcy the Minister and the 
People, standing. 

j BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of 
* heaven and earth: 

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin 
Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, 
dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third 
day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into 
heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the 
Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge 
the quick and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic 
( hurch: The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness 
of sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life 
everlasting. Amen. 



1 Then the Minister shall say, 

The Lord be with you. 
Answer. And with thy spirit. 
Minister. Let us pray. 

1 Then all devoutly kneeling, the Minister shall say the prayers 

following: 

zA Collect for Peace. 

OGOD, who art the author of peace and lover of 
concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our 
eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend 
us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; 
that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear 
the power of any adversaries, through the might of 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

A Prayer for the President of the United States and all in Civil 

Authority. 

r~\ LORD, our heavenly Father, the high and 
^-^ mighty Ruler of the Universe, who dost from 
thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth; Most 
heartily we beseech thee, with thy favour to behold and 
bless thy servant The President of the United 
States, and all others in authority, and so replenish 
them with the grace of thy Holy Spirit; that they may 
always incline to thy will, and walk in thy way. Endue 
them plenteously with heavenly gifts; grant them in 
health and prosperity long to live; and finally, after 
this life, to attain everlasting joy and felicity; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

A Special Thanksgiving. 

OGOD, by whom the whole world is governed 
and preserved, we give Thee hearty thanks for 
the privilege of commemorating in Thy Holy Temple, 
with Praise and Thanksgiving the Birth of Thy servant, 



George Washington, whose name Thou madest, 
throughout the world, a synonym for all that is best 
in human character and achievement. 

We thank Thee that, having endowed him with 
every needed qualification of mind and heart and per- 
son, Thou didst especially train him for the great work 
which, in Thy far-seeing Providence, he was destined 
to perform; even the deliverance of this land from 
political oppression; and the founding of an Empire 
which now stretches from sea to sea; and exercises a 
potent, and every increasing, influence upon the nations 
of the earth. 

We thank Thee that Thou didst cover his head in 
the day of battle; and protect him from the pestilence 
that walketh in darkness, and the sickness that de- 
stroyed! in the noonday; that no weapon formed 
against him, was permitted to prosper; and that he 
was carried unscathed through innumerable dangers, 
to become the first Ruler of the people he had saved; 
and securely lay the foundations of our national Gov- 
ernment. 

We thank Thee that in his Administration of our 
civil affairs, he set an example of wisdom; prudence; 
incorruptible integrity; and forgetfulness of self, in 
his love for his country; and loyalty to his conscience, 
and his God: And we earnestly pray that his pure 
example at the beginning of our national life, may be 
more faithfully followed in the future than in the past; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

if n n: Revolution. 

f~\ THOU who turnest the hearts of the children 
^—' to the fathers, and has declared that the right- 
eous shall be had in everlasting remembrance, we 
thank Thee for the inspiration which called into exist- 



ence the Society of the Sons of the Revolution; and 
the blessing which has hitherto attended it. And we 
pray Thee to continue to aid our Society in this, and 
succeeding generations, in the pious work of perpet- 
uating the memory of the sacrifices, and sufferings, 
and valour of our fathers, through which our price- 
less heritage was won. 

And finally, when we also shall have served Thee 
in our generation, may we be gathered unto our 
fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience; 
in favour with Thee our God, and in perfect charity 
with the world. All which we ask through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

2 Corinthians xiii. 14. 

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love 
* of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, 
be with us all evermore. Amen. 

T Then shall be sung 
Te Deum. 



Here will follow the Sermon by the 

Rev. CLARENCE WALWORTH BACKUS, D. D. 

Followed by 

The Ascription Anthem. 

Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiv- 
ing, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our 
God forever and ever. Amen. 



T Then shall he sung the following hymn. 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrims' pride, 
From every mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 

O sons of noble sires, 

Who, through afflictions' fires, 

To victory rode, 
Proud of the deeds they wrought, 
With countless blessings fraught, 
Cherish the land they bought, 

The gift of God. 

Our fathers' God, to thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To thee I sing; 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by thy might, 

Great God, our King! 



DOXOLOGY. 

PRAISE God, from whom all blessings flow 
Praise Him, all creatures here below! 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Amen. 

Prayer and Benediction. 



Recessional. 

God of our fathers, 

Bless this our land; 
Ocean to ocean 

Owneth Thy hand. 
Home of all nations 

From far and near, 
Give, to unite us, 

Thy faith and fear. 
God of our fathers, 

Failing us never, 
God of our fathers, 

Be ours forever. 

Lord God of Sabaoth, 

Mighty in war, 
Boundless and numberless 

Thine armies are. 
Thy right hand conquereth 

All that oppose; 
Launch forth Thy thunderbolts, 

Smite down our foes; 
Lord God of Sabaoth, 

Failing us never, 
Lord God of Sabaoth, 

Fight for us ever. 

Lord God our Saviour, 

Thy love o'erflows, 
Making our wilderness 

Bloom as the rose, 
Thou with true liberty 

Makest us free, 
Knowing no master, 

No king, but Thee; 
Lord God our Saviour, 

Failing us never, 
Lord God our Saviour, 

Reign Thou forever. 



Spirit of unity, 

Crown of all kings, 
Find us a resting place 

Under thy wings: 
By Thine own presence 

Thy will be done, 
Millions of free men 

Banded as one. 
Lord God almighty, 

Failing us never, 
Thine be the glory, 

Now and forever. 



* 



Press of 

LAWTON & BURNAP, 

706-708 Delaware St. 



A. D. 1896. 






ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Society $on$ of the Revolution 

IN THE STATE OF MISSOURI, 



Annual Meeting, February 22, 1896, 

SOUTHERN HOTEL, ST. LOUIS, MO., 

BY 

Right Rev. DANIEL SYLVESTER TUTTLE, D. D., S. T. D. 

Rev. GEORGE EDWARD MARTIN, D. D., 

Hon. ISRAEL PUTNAM DANA, 

Hon. DANIEL SMITH ALVORD, 

Hon. SELDEN PALMER SPENCER, 

Hon. ARTHUR LEE, 
Dr. ROBERT CHILTON ATKINSON, 
Prof. HALSEY COOLEY IVES. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



KANSAS CITY, MO. 

Lawton & Burnap, Stationers and Printers, 706-708 Delaware Street. 

1896. 



ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED AT THE 

BANQUET, 
SOUTHERN HOTEL, ST. LOUIS, MO. 

FEBRUARY 22, 1S9<3. 



BISHOP TUTTLE. 

My Brothers, Fellow Members of the Missouri Society of the Sons 
of the Revolution : 

It is with pride and pleasure that I proceed to discharge the 
allotted duty with which I am honored, in saying "All hail" and 
"Welcome" to you to-night. 

Pride, in knowing you to be worthy sons of worthy sires, 
whose memory you will not willingly let die ; and pride, that you 
count yourselves in among those who, in tale of weight and meas- 
ure, reckon the strength of self-sacrificing patriotism infinitely 
preferable to the sweetness of self aggrandizement and ease. 

Pleasure, that in the urgent exactions of the busy nineteenth 
century and this busiest American life you are willing to turn 
aside a while and look into the past, and think and be thankful; 
and pleasure, that so many of you are gathered together, a goodly 
multitude, to join hands and bow heads and quicken heart throbs 
in love and loyalty to the country and the flag. 

You may have been too polite to speak it out to me, but I am 
certain you want me to be a voice for you, to extend also the "All 
Hail" and "Welcome" to the ladies and other guests who have 
consented to grace this meeting with their attractive presence, and 
to cheer our hearts with a sense of comradeship and co-operation. 

Dear ladies, our late Secretary Uhl was to be sent from the 
official family of our Department of State to be the United States 
Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Berlin. 
But ere he went certain preliminary inquiries were made of the 
august Kaiser whether he were a persona grata. Such inquiries 



manifest the existence of a doubt, even in cases of the highest and 
most worthy of my ovvn sex, as to their fitness and pleasingness 
for certain positions. 

But I cannot think that my friend Wyman, of the Committee 
of Arrangements, even though conspicuously painstaking and 
watchful, or my friend Sloan, chairman of the Invitation Com- 
mittee, resorted to any such preliminary questionings concerning 
you. They knew from their Latin grammars that "persona" is 
feminine, and therefore entitled to "grata" as its attendant ad- 
jective. We all assent to their findings and approve their decisions, 
and are ready to say, in Latin and English, in grammar and diplo- 
macy, in solo and chorus, you are personae gratae, gratiores, 
gratissimat at this court. 

Fellow Sons of the Revolution, our guests will pardon a bit of 
manifestation of vanity on the part of you and me. Our Missouri 
S(iciet} r is only two years old. A year ago we were one hundred 
and, Hfty-n ine in number. This year we are three hundred and two. 
So much may be said for the sturdy infant of two years' growth 
in quantity of arithmetical computation. For quality, I will not 
use adjectives or adverbs, superlative, but only bid you "cir- 
cv/mspicite. " 

It is evident that much missionary work has been done. Many 
even in somnolent and apathetic St. Louis have taken a hand in 
that missionary work and done nobly. But a little town in the 
country outranks the metropolis far and high in this matter, for it 
is the home of him to whom the astonishing success is mostly due 
"in- diligent, energetic, untiring, irrepressible Secretary. 

Why, if five or six of us of sufficient muscularity could lay 
hold of his stout and sturdy frame and take him, nolens volens, to 
the laboratory of some doctor or savant of our modern science, and 
-■'lire the photograph on the sensitized plate of the inner physical 
boing of that genial form, by the Roentgen, or X, or cathode 
rays, I do not say you would find the heart empty; nay, I be- 
lieve it tilled with kindly and unselfish and noble things ; but I 
.•mi strongly impressed with the conviction that in the very front 
"t" it, mikI on m scroll stretched in generous breadth from rib to rib, 
in letters ton large for need of microscope or spectacles, you shall 
read, "The Missouri Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Vigeat 
ndix. h.-rr, Isior 



The presentation of the flag touched my heart. Your hearts, 
too, I am sure, were touched and lifted. It is the symbol of our 
country. Of all earthly symbols we love and revere it most, save 
one, the Cross of Him who died that we may live. There are 
those who, like my friend at the right, General Henry of the 
United States Army, are charged, by their long training with the 
direct protection of the flag, in a nearer and more immediate sense 
than the rest of us. But, sir, you will allow us to come to your 
side, or close behind you, in undying love, and we hope in un- 
selfish devotion, to the flag. 

Our fathers helped to make it, in helping to make the country. 
But the one man who was pre-eminently the maker of it was he 
whose birth we celebrate this day. 

May I not venture to promise, on behalf of the Sons and 
Daughters of the Revolution, that, in all future generations, so 
long as human minds admire the noble, and human hearts love the 
unselfish, there shall not be wanting in America loyal men and de- 
voted women, and enthusiastic boys and girls, to manifest their 
reverence and affection for the birthday of him who was the father 
of his country and the maker of the flag. 

We Americans, proud as we are of the history of the past, do 
not, I think, ask to lord it over the other republics of the Western 
Continent; nor do we wish to take up an attitude of arrogant as- 
sumption, as that we are the protectors of these republics; that 
we are the only nation of this Western Continent to which can be 
accorded much consideration, or which may be regarded as a na- 
tion of worth and power. 

No, we simply want and insist that the people of this conti- 
nent shall have peaceful permission to follow out the developments 
of their national life as God's Providence and their own earnest 
and noble exertions fit them to do ; and that this may go on, we 
simply claim as Americans, in the real interest of peace for future 
generations, and not in threat of war, that the great powers of 
Europe must be told that they cannot interfere. 

England ! Mother England ! If we but go down deeper than 
words spoken by the lips, we shall find shut within the heart ad- 
miration and affection for her. We thank her for the English 
tongue, and the English Bible and for English law. We thank 



6 

her for Milton and Shakespeare, for Newton and Bacon. We 
thank her for Anglo-Saxon love of freedom, and Anglo-Saxon 
sense of duty, and Anglo-Saxon strength of control and self-re- 
liance. Indeed, we greet her lovingly as the motherland, and we 
pray God to help her and help us that we may always be at peace 
together. 

But she herself will not forbid such a body as this gathered 
here to-night from turning from her to greet our own country 
with u 6>, pulchra matre filia pulehrior 7" And while we speak, 
we change the "filia' 1 '' to " mater" and the "pulchrior" to 

" pulcherrima.''' 

Our own country, mother near and dear ! For thee and thy 
best and highest interest we want to live; and under the flag, the 
protecting a'gis of thy liberties, we want to die, when God calls us 
away from the sentry duty of this mysterious world. 



Rev. GEO. EDWARD MARTIN, D. D. 

"THE REVOLUTION— MORE THAN A JUST 

REBELLION." 

.)//•. President : , Ladies and Gentlemen: 

A scene in an early mellow New England summer comes to 
mind. A few lads, quite ready for their first swim of the season, 
are standing on the bank of a pleasant stream. The speaker, then 
a lively boy, is shivering before, his leap into the running river; a 
playmate tries, "Plunge in, you will find the river broad and 
deep enough, and, when you are in, warm enough." Without 
any preface, I plunge into my subject; I shall find it deep and 
broad enough, and I trust its discussion may evoke some patriotic 
warmth in us all. 

The American Revolution more than a just Rebellion ? Yes, 
because it was an emphasis of a principle of life and progress, in- 
herent in our creation in God's image, viz: Every man has a right 
to himself and the fruits of his labor, that he may be and become 
the best possible for himself and all others, with a due regard to 
the rights of others; or, more tersely stated, every man has a right 
to himself. 



The Reformation, along religious lines, struck for and crystal- 
ized this principle of life. It was more than a just rebellion for 
it was a revolt of the individual against the crushing tyranny ot an 
Ecclesiastical Institution. The finest and most resonant individual 
expression of the Reformation's gospel was the sturdy monk of 
Erfurt, single-handed and alone, before the blazing Diet of the 
German Empire. When retraction was demanded of him, he 
cried, "Here 1 stand; I cannot otherwise. God help me. Amen." 
These words, like a bugle call, awoke all sleeping Europe to the 
dawn of a better day, wherein man should enjoy a larger and bet- 
ter lease of life. Discipleship of Martin Luther, in the years 
succeeding his memorable stand for the rights of a man, has ripened 
into eras of human progress. 

In political and social lines, the French Revolution reissued 
the gospel of the Reformation. It is not easy to speak in meas- 
ured phrase of that sanguinary time. Readily Carlyle's acrid 
sarcasm comes to lip, in substance this, "That was a memorable 
night, when my lords spiritual and temporal and my parliament 
president abrogated their untenable rights, their seignorial fees, 
dues, tithes, and rents; laid them on the altar of their country's 
freedom, and, then, adjourned about three o'clock in the morning 
and struck the stars with theii sublime heads." Yet it was a sub- 
lime thing, this public acknowledgement that the rebellious lower 
classes were right in striking for the fruits of their labor and the 
chance to enter upon the rivalry of life on the footing of equal 
political opportunity. Some one has spoken truly in saying, 
"The ruling classes in the French Revolution were at one and the 
same time the enemies and heirs of their own cause.'" Indeed, 
the strongest ally the struggling classes had was the awakened 
conscience of the upper ranks, who knew, in their own hearts, 
that the down-trodden were right. So, the French Revolution 
writes anew in choice blood that great verity the Reformation un- 
frocks into individual freedom from institutional despotism. 

The American Revolution clothes this same truth in colonial 
uniform, and sends it out to another struggle and a memorable 
victory. What men the forefathers of the Revolutionary heroes 
were ! It is no wonder great and heroic men grew from such 
stock. They left old England, which they loved with an English- 



8 

man's splendid obstinacy of affection, ;it a time, bidden to be 
prayed against, in the Good Book, as a time for flight, the inclem- 
ent winter, in a little vessel, unchartered, ridiculed and unblessed. 
When, in the stuffy cabin of the Mayflower, and the moral ozone 
of a new world, these prophetic men drew up the first instrument 
of Constitutional Liberty ever known, they laid down the fighting 
chart by which themselves and those to come should strike for a 
man's right to himself that he might be the most and best for 
others. That "sifted seed of three kingdoms," so largely sown 
on Burial Hill, became a strong growth on many a battle field, 
and bore fruit at Yorktown. 

At its date, the American Revolution was possibly the most 
tremendous and triumphant declaration of that for which Martin 
Luther faced the Diet of Worms and the streets of Paris ran 
prophetic blood. As a struggle it began back in the Saxon for- 
ests, when our ancient ancestors fought for their rights under 
stout Arminius against Roman tyranny; was continued on Runny - 
niede Meadow, when aroused English barons wrested Magna 
Charta from a reluctant king; at Lewes and famous Naseby, on 
the Plains of Abraham, and, at last, was crowned at Yorktown with 
victory. Washington was the flower of De Montfort, Cromwell 
and Chatham. 

Not long ago men, who are here to-night, and their fathers, 
fought for a full writing of that which the Revolution but partly 
decreed. A twilight nation, four millions, prophetically strong 
and weak, was made free, and now, every man under the Stars 
and Stripes has a right, unshackled, to work out his own salvation. 

Battle fields for this great legacy our fathers have bequeathed 
to us from struggle and sacrifice, are not to be on plain or hill, 
where literal war shall ruin the crops that are, or fearfully fertilize 
the earth for future harvest of graves and broken hearts. We 
are not called to rip up the earth with the enginery of war, that 
leave- behind bad years. We will not fight on ocean or river, 
which may blush for shame of us, as we spill our brother's blood; 
bul in legislative halls and around council tables we are called to 
battle for that which our fathers won and entrusted to our care. 
Here is our Lexingtoo Green, our Concord Bridge, our Boston 
Beights, on! Bunker Hill, our Saratoga and Beunington, our 
Yorktown, — yes, our Appomattox. 



9 

While the conditions of the struggle for us are cosmopolitan, 
yet there is a hopeful sense in which Plymouth Rock rock-ribs and 
back-bones this nation. No sword to-day is big enough to master 
the world, no standing army big enough to threaten the peace of 
the world, yet the spirit of the American Revolution to-day is 
potent enough to rule a mighty nation and, if need be, protect a 
continent. 

Sons of the Revolution, while our loyal memories this night 
beat the old colonial drums and wave the ancient banners we have 
learned to revere, let us, above all, bear in mind the splendidly 
obvious fact that now our defense and assertion of the principle 
for which the men in buff and blue lived, fought and died must 
be along moral lines ; so far have we come and so high as a 
nation, that henceforth our supreme inspiration in any toil or bat- 
tle for the weal of the American must rest in the conviction that 
God cares. This assurance will lend dignity to our zeal, solem- 
nity to our struggles, and an almost infinite sacredness to our 
sacrifices. Somewhere, Whittier says : 

" Our fathers to their graves have gone ; 
Their strife is past, their triumph won : 
But sterner trials wait the race 
Which rises in their honored place, — 
A moral warfare with the crime 
And folly of an evil time. 
So let it be, in God's own might 
We gird us for the coming fight, 
And, strong in Him, whose cause is ours 
In conflict with unholy powers, 
We grasp the weapons He has given— 
The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven." 
To which I add, — 

Ah, those men of early days, 
With their puritanic ways, 

Stern and straight ; 
On, from hill of graves they went, 
By Jehovah's order sent, 
To their fate. 

In our Nation's darkened prime, 
In that deep prophetic time, 

Those who led 
Feared no Master but their God, 
And they hallowed every sod, 

Where they bled. 



10 

On the heights of fame they stand, 
A devoted God-owned band, 

Speaking clear 
To the men of their own blood, 
As they stem an evil flood, 

Without fear. 

' Honor us, who fought and died, 
That in you we might have pride, 

As you fight 
That there never may be dearth, 
Of the right, that comes with birth, 
In our sight." 



ISRAEL PUTNAM DANA, Esq. 

" WASHINGTON— WITH THE SURVEYOR'S CHAIN." 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

After his father was beheaded at Whitehall, Charles II., 
while awaiting his opportunity to gain the throne of England, 
held a mimic, movable court in France and the Netherlands. 
Ah hough an exile and without a kingdom he dispensed royal 
favors, and in 1649, at St. Germain, granted to one of his 
courtiers, Lord Culpepper, a tract of land in the American colo- 
nics described as the Northern Neck of Virginia. It was indeed a 
royal gift, for it embraced all the land between the Potomac and 
Rappahannock rivers, running westerly beyond the Blue Ridge 
and including most of the Shenandoah Valley. A domain of 
nearly six million acres ; larger than the entire state of Massa- 
chusetts ! But the English monarchs were prodigal in those days 
in disposing of American territory, for you will remember that 
King James I. gave the London Company, by charter, a sea front 
of 400 miles— 200 miles north and 200 miles south of Point 
Comfort — all islands within 100 miles of the coast, and all the 
country back from this 400 miles of frontage -throughout from 
sea to sea." The "Monroe doctrine" had not then been heard 
from ! 

Sixty years after the Northern Neck was granted to Lord Cul- 
pepper it passed by inheritance to his grandson Thomas, sixth 
Lord Fairfax, who in 1730 tirst visited the estate. So delighted 



11 

was he with the climate and scenery of the country, with the 
cordiality and frankness of the Virginians and their independent 
life, that, after arranging his affairs in England, he returned to 
the colony in 1747 to make it his home and to end his days there. 
He was an interesting personage and destined to exert a great in- 
fluence on the life of him, the anniversary of whose birth we cele- 
brate to-night. At the time of which I speak Lord Fairfax was 
over fifty years of age and of commanding appearance ; a gradu- 
ate of Oxford, he had contributed to Addison's "Spectator," and 
associated with the best society of Europe and its famous authors; 
he was accomplished in all the field sports of the day and when 
younger held a commission in a crack British regiment of horse ; 
of great wealth, he was also of famous lineage, for he had suc- 
ceeded by right of birth to the title of that Lord Fairfax, whose 
conservative and yet vigorous conduct in support of Parliament in 
its struggle with the first Charles entitled him to rank among the 
most worthy of English soldiers and patriots. 

Lord Fairfax remained for some time with his cousin, William 
Fairfax, at Belvoir, the hitter's plantation on the Potomac near 
Mt. Vernon, and there he became acquainted with the 
neighboring families. A frequent and welcome visitor at the 
plantation was a tall, athletic youth, whose manly self-control and 
modest frankness evinced a character of great promise and made 
him a favorite with the Fairfax family, into which his half-brother 
had married. 

This youth was our Washington at fifteen. He had mastered 
the ''three Rs " under the parish sexton, Hobby, in the "old 
field schoolhouse;" had escaped entering the navy through his 
mother's good judgment and had completed a plain and practical 
education under the tuition of a local teacher, giving especial at- 
tention to surveying, the theory and practice of which he thor- 
oughly understood. An accomplished horseman and skilled in 
the pursuit of game, he became the chosen companion of Lord 
Fairfax, who was an enthusiastic hunter, and they remained fast 
friends throughout the hitter's life. Their experiences in the 
chase displayed the vigor, coolness, activity and courage of the 
youth, and these qualities, together with his skill as a surveyor 
and his thoroughness and accuracy in every undertaking, led the 



12 

English lord to engage ihc young man in the important work of 
surveying the more remote portion of his estates, particularly that 
beyond the Blue Ridge, which had never been surveyed or regu- 
larly settled and of which but little was known. 

Thus it came about that, in March, 1748, within a month after 
his sixteenth birthday, Washington stalled with quadrant and 
chain to survey a vast, unexplored territory, which was still the 
home of the red man. For three years he continued in this occu- 
pation, returning occasionally to Mt. Vernon, but spending most. 
of his leisure at Greenway Court, the name given by Lord Fair- 
fax to the country seat which he had established on a beautiful 
site in the Shenandoah Valley, about ten miles from the present 
city of Winchester. 

Of the details of Washington's experiences during these three 
years history tells us little. We learn that early in the period he 
was appointed public surveyor, which entitled his surveys to be 
recorded, and his services were in great demand; that when 
actively employed he received from a doubloon to six pistoles ($15 
to $20) per day; that he explored and surveyed and platted vast 
tracts of land, much of it wilderness, living constantly for months 
at a time out of doors, taking toilsome tramps into the mountains, 
inuring himself to hardships of all kinds and gaining an intimate 
acquaintance with the nature of the country and of the Indians, 
woodsmen and few settlers whom he met there. 

But it was not all hard work or prose, for occasional letters, 
and even his note books, contained evidence that he carried into 
the wilderness tender feelings for some fair but unresponsive Vir- 
ginian, and without doubt, as the young surveyor looked up at the 
stars from beside his camp tire or ate his noonday lunch by some 
clear mountain stream, the angles and tangents, sines and cosines 
of his profession faded into such delightful dreams as even unre- 
quited affection inspires in a generous nature. 

Then during the inclement season, when work was impractica- 
ble, Greenway Court an 1 its master welcomed him to their hospi- 
i.ilitv. What pleasure and benefit he must have found there ! In 
the conversation of Fairfax, whose education and accomplishments 
and knowledge of the world furnished such a contrast to his sur- 
rnunding8; and in the books which he had brought into the 



13 

wilderness ; and in the field sports, where English lord and pro- 
vincial surveyor forgot all differences of position or attainments in 
the excitement of the chase. 

Such, briefly outlined, is the story of Washington's three 
years with the surveyor's chain. They were years of hard physi- 
cal toil and self-denial, with little, apparently, to arouse enthusi- 
asm or develop heroism ; and yet I believe no other three years 
of his life did more to form the character which made him the 
greatest of Americans, or are more truly typical of a career full 
of great achievements. 

In this undertaking, as when five years afterwards he was sent 
on a mission to the Ohio Indians, and in 1775, when he was called 
to lead the Continental armies, and again in 1789, when he was 
inaugurated First President of the United States, his duty took 
him upon unknown and untried ground. He found no corners 
marked or boundaries run, but on him it devolved, in surveying 
the wilds of Virginia, as in directing the development of our gov- 
ernment under the Constitution, to fix courses and establish mon- 
uments for succeeding generations. As Surveyor, as General, as 
Chief Executive of the Nation, he was a pioneer. 

The devotion and success with which he led the armies and 
builded the State are known to each of us and to all the world. But 
he was no less faithful or successful when, as a lad, he toiled over 
the rugged mountains and through the untrodden forests of Vir- 
ginia, carrying the surveyor's chain ; for so invariably correct 
have his surveys of that territory been found that the records 
thereof receive implicit credit to this day. 

The experience of those three years must have exerted a deep 
and wide influence upon Washington's character. The unshared re- 
sponsibility of this, his first public work (great for his years), cul- 
tivated that self-reliance, strong but modest, which marked his 
discharge of every public trust ; this, his first experience in the 
actual control and direction of men, aided the development of 
that firmness, sagacity and moderation which made him a great 
leader; his conscientious professional pride in doing "good 
work" stimulated and strengthened that unfaltering courage 
under adversity, and enduring patience in getting to the right of 
the matter, whatever it might be, and doing it, which to my 



14 

mind were the pre-eminent virtues of our greatest citizen. 

" Endurance is the crowning quality 
And patience all the passion of great hearts." 

No doubt the young surveyor's assistants criticised at times 
and murmured and complained, as perhaps we would have done, 
at the painstaking accuracy which he insisted must be observed, 
and which he observed himself, in every detail of their work, no 
matter what the cold or wet or other obstacle. A few feet this 
way, or a few that, seemed to them a small thing in a great 
wilderness. But then, as ever to Washington, in small things as 
in great, the controlling question was, — where lies the right ? 
And his answer, — there set the quadrant, and thence run the 
chain. 

"Who hath despised the day of small things? They shall 
rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hands of Zerubbabel." 

Hon. DANIEL SMITH ALVORD. 

"WASHINGTON— THE FIRST PRESIDENT, BEAZING 
THE TRAIL OF PATRIOTIC DUTY." 

Washington the surveyor penetrated trackless forests and ex- 
plored mountain ranges, but he had a Gunter to tell him how to 
do it. Washington the farmer was born of a family and was 
reared in a community of agriculturists, and from childhood had 
constantly before him examples of how best to bring forth from 
mother earth her choicest productions. Washington the soldier, 
in his immortal campaigns in the Jerseys, had a Fabius who 
balked the conquering legions of Hannibal for a model, and in his 
lasl glorious campaign, which culminated in the capture of York- 
town, he need bin have followed in the footsteps of a Conde and 
a Turenne. Washington as President of the Constitutional Con- 
vention had his manual. 

Bui Washington as First President of the United States blaz- 
ing a track of patriotic duty, launched forth upon a trackless sea 
with no precedent to follow and no compass to guide his course, 
lie was called niton to set in motion the machinery of a govern- 
ment that had no parallel in ancient or modern history. He was 



15 

called upon to establish administrative lines under a Constitution 
then recently adopted by thirteen colonies, each one of which was 
jealous of the other and each one jealous of the whole. He was 
called upon to establish a line of demarcation between the sov- 
ereignty of the states and the nation, the solution of which was 
so difficult that it became a subject of heated controversy in the 
forum and on the rostrum for generations to follow. The line 
he did so establish was afterwards approved by the greatest jurist 
among English-speaking people, John Marshall, of Virginia, and 
further, the same was endorsed by that prince of statesmen and 
logicians, Daniel Webster, in his memorable rejoinder to Hayne. 
And above all and before all, the position he assumed on this 
mooted question was approved by the inexorable logic, born of 
the result of the bloodiest, costliest and most gigantic war in re- 
corded history, from Herodotus to the present day. 

It came to Washington to inherit from the predecessor of the 
young republic, the Colonial Confederacy, a bankrupt treasury, 
and a financial system that had destroyed the credit of the nation 
at home and abroad, and failed to furnish the people with au ade- 
quate circulating medium. He established a financial system that 
in its essential qualities remains in force even unto this day. A 
system that restored the credit of the nation at home and abroad, 
and gave the people an ample circulating medium — a system that 
received the encomiums of financiers everywhere, and above all 
and before all a system which declared to the world that repudia- 
tion, in whole or in part, waa the gravest of offenses in a nation, 
as it is in an individual. He found our foreign relations in an 
almost inextricable confusion. On the one hand he had to deal 
with the jealous, treacherous and hostile George the Third ; on 
the other hand to deal with France, while she was in the midst of 
a bloody revolution — a godless, merciless, lawless revolution. He 
had to deal with this nation who seemed to think that because she 
aided us in the hour of our need, she had a right to tyrannize over 
us in the hour of our birth-throes. 

Of all the qualities that give power in man to make and un- 
make nations, to secure imperishable reforms, or to produce great 
results in the affairs of men, those attributes that enter into and 
form great and exalted characters are the most vital and potent. 



16 

Washington possessed these attributes in the highest degree. 

Tell me not that the great measures of the Washington admin- 
istration was due alone to the genius of Alexander Hamilton or 
the statesmanship of Thomas Jefferson. History does, and ever 
will, give to these two distinguished men their just dues for their 
eminent service in the Washington cabinet. But had it not been 
for the trust and confidence of the American people in the great 
and exalted character of George Washington, these great measures 
of the Washington administration could never have been success- 
fully carried into execution. 

The American people, contemplating this great character, 
which stood before them like a monument of adamant on the plain, 
believed in it and trusted it. And this trust and belief enabled 
"The Father of his Country" to take hold of the helm of the 
ship of state, and guide her safely through the breakers and 
dangers that surrounded her, and which enabled him at the close 
of his administration to transfer that helm to his successor in a 
placid sea of harmony and good will. 

And now, in conclusion, may we all express the wish that we 
and our posterity shall ever continue to entertain that same trust 
and confidence in the wisdom of the teachings of him who was 
"First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his country- 
men." 

Hon. SELDEN PALMER SPENCER. 

« W ASHINGTON— THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CONSTITU- 
TIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787." 

It seems almost incredible to us at this day that there could 
ever have been a time in the history of our government when the 
propriety and desirability of establishing an American nation on 
this continent to take, as a Federal power, its high place among 
the nations of the Earth could have been seriously doubted 
and yet, fearful as we now know would have been the result of a 
reparation <.f the Stabs, there were men at the close of the Revo- 
lution — brave men, patriotic men — who had little confidence in a 
union of the several commonwealths, and who desired much more 
their entire separation or at least the establishment of two or 
three distinct nations along the Atlantic seaboard. 



17 

Carolinians were content to remain Carolinians. Virginians 
were satisfied with the pride of their own commonwealth. New 
Yorkers had no higher ideal of national life than that found in 
their own state. The entire people found, after the war of the 
Revolution which had bound them together in a common cause, 
was ended that the differences in race and in religious belief — 
Catholics of Maryland, Quakers of Pennsylvania and Baptists of 
Rhode Island — tended rather to separate than to unite them. 

The Continental Congress, unable to control commerce and 
without the power to enforce taxation, was not only impotent at 
home but was the jest of all Europe. Meeting now at one place 
and now at another, and losing dignity and prestige at every mi- 
gration it was a pronounced and a decided failure. All Europe wait- 
ed in sad expectancy to see these colonies, whose independence had 
been so dearly won, disintegrate because of internal dissension. 
Men brave enough to tear their country from England's greedy 
grasp were unable to rule the land which they had won. Wash- 
ington, writing to a friend at this time, might well say : ' ' My 
grief at the death of General Green is lessened now, for he is far 
better dead than living to see our nation in such a plight as this 
and to behold a future which we may yet bemoan." 

It was at such a crisis in our national life when the Convention — 
largely possible by Washington's efforts — met in Philadelphia, in 
1787, to agree, if agree they could, upon some form of perma- 
nent government. No man was mentioned to preside over the 
important gathering save Washington. No man could be thought 
of at such a time but he whose loyalty to his country stood above 
question ; he who, when his soldiers were ready and able and 
eager to make him king, refused with scorn the offer of sovereign 
power preferring rather to be a citizen of a free country than a 
ruler over a subject people. 

The records of that Convention show that Washington took 
but little active part in its deliberations. Once he spoke during 
the earlier days of the session, and then when men were propos- 
ing unstable and unsafe compromises because of the fear that 
their several constituencies, proud of their State's rights, would 
consent to nothing better, Washington — from Virginia — hushing 
the deliberations of the assembly for a moment rose from the 



18 

president's chair and said : "It is too probable that no plan we 
propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to 
be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we our- 
selves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work ? Let 
us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair — 
the event is in the hand of God." 

With these words he set the mark, he raised the standard, he 
pitched the tune that rang through all the future sessions of that 
Convention, and gave us the Federal Constitution under whose 
strong and beneficent rule we now live. 

We may well ask ourselves what made Washington, unaccus- 
tomed as he was to legislative life, the great power in that assem- 
bly? It was his undying loyalty to the Union. It was that 
same unimpeachable integrity which so characterized General 
Reed, of Pennsylvania, who, when the emissaries of England 
offered him 10,000 guineas and high honors to betray his trust, 
made this reply : "I am not worth the purchasing, but such as 
1 am, Great Britain's king is not rich enough to buy me." 

It was the same intelligence and tact that was so conspicuous in 
the life of Benjamin Franklin. Diplomatic history records that 
when present at a State dinner in a German capital, where each 
ambassador was requested to propose a toast to his own govern- 
ment, and the English ambassador had proposed a toast to 
England: "Who like the sun shines in power and beauty upon 
the whole earth," and the French ambassador had proposed a 
toast to France : " Who like the moon makes even the darkness of 
the night lovely with its radiance," Franklin was called upon. 
What could he say after such extravagant illustrations ? The 
company was hushed in expectation, when, with a smile upon his 
face and lifting his glass from the table, he proposed the toast to 
the United States of America, "Who, when occasion requires, 
like Joshua of old, commands the sun and the moon to stand 
still, and they obey.'' 

It was such patriotism, such honesty, such intelligent tact 
combined in Washington as in no other single man that made 
him the guiding and molding, though almost silent power of that 
greal Convention. 

When the last names were being affixed to the Constitution, 



19 

-Benjamin Franklin remarked to those standing near, as be pointed 
to a picture representing the sun half hidden by the horizon, 
which hung behind the President's chair : " I have often and often 
in the course of the session, and in the vicissitudes of my hopes 
and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun, without being able to 
tell what the painter intended, but now in the light of this Consti- 
tution I have at length the happiness to know that it is a rising, 
and not a setting sun." 

What was his prophesy then we know is a glorious reality now 
and while we are enjoying the rich blessings of that risen sun we 
see it still advancing in magnificent grandeur toward its zenith 
power in a course so wonderful that the nations of the earth are 
dazzled with its brilliancy and yet so sure that nothing but the 
unworthiness or indifference of its beneficiaries can ever mar its 
lustre or hinder its progress. 



Mr. ARTHUR LEE. 

" WASHINGTON— AT MT. VERNON." 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It is as I realize a trial to you, as it is so clearly a hard fate 
for me, that you should be compelled to listen to what I have to 
say, immediately after your ears have been enchanted by the sweet 
song so charmingly rendered by the lady who has preceded me. 

Washington was so much a type and embodiment of patriot- 
ism during our struggle for independence, that his name alone 
brings up before us with a freshness almost personal the hopes and 
anxieties, sufferings and triumphs of the founders of the Repub- 
lic. When his name is coupled with Mt. Vernon the theme and 
lesson of patriotism seem suggested with especial emphasis. Of 
all the motives which led to the fight against England, love of 
country in its broadest, but in its primitive sense as well, was the 
feeling which chiefly animated Washington, and love of country 
has its origin in love of home. In all ages the invocation of pa- 
triotism has been by an appeal to this feeling, to the Lares and 
Penates, the household gods, the fireside, the home. 

The patriotism of Washington may be likened to a giant oak. 



20 

Its stalwart branches spread over and protected impartially the 
whole country, but its deepest and tenderest roots were at Mt. 
Vernon. Every other sentiment and impulse, intellectual and 
moral gift required in that struggle by our leader seem to have 
been his, and each was ready when the emergency called for it, 
but they were all enlisted in the public service by his controlling 
love of country. Patriotism was exalted and universal in every 
section of the country where the cause of Independence had ad- 
herents and evinced various admirable and useful characteristics in 
different parts of the land, but I think that this love of country, 
in its primitive sense, had a peculiar and distinguishing phase of 
its own in the colony and class from which Washington sprang. 
Virginia was a loyal colony by history and tradition, and was 
proud of its loyalty. It had been settled in large part by the 
followers of Charles I. and Charles II. Cavaliers of rank and 
consequence had immigrated there, and even among those who 
occupied a subordinate rank were sixteen hundred and ten loyalist 
followers of Charles II., who were made prisoners at the battle of 
Worcester by Cromwell and sent to Virginia, both as punishment 
for their rising against the Commonwealth and because their re- 
maining in England might be a menace to the Government. The 
title of " Old Dominion," its motto, " En Virginia dat Quintam" 
were boasts of loyalty and reminders that Charles II. had been 
proclaimed King in Virginia before he had been restored to his 
throne in England. The fox-hunting Virginia planter, glorying 
in the courage, endurance and sacrifices of his ancestors in the 
struggles, not only against innovation in Church and State, but 
also in favor of the King against Parliament, was not likely to dis- 
turb himself about theories of government in regard to laws hav- 
ing the approval of both Crown and Parliament, which worked no 
greater oppression or personal inconvenience than the Stamp Act 
and the light tax on tea, but when these acts first provoked discus- 
Bion and resistance in the "cradle of liberty" — Boston — leading 
to the ultimate closing of that port, the sympathetic feeling of 
patriotism in behalf of fellow Americans of the North against the 
Government beyond the ocean was thoroughly aroused in Virginia, 
and she came with voire, pen and sword, and with an unanimity 
not surpassed elsewhere to the assistance, as her House of Bur- 



21 

gesses termed it, of " The much injured Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay." This luxuriant, generous and lovely patriotism, as an out- 
growth from love of home and Colony, was by no one better illus- 
trated than by Washington in his deeds, career and counsel, and 
as no one exceeded him in patriotism, so there is ample testimony 
that he had few rivals and no superior in love of home. He in- 
herited Mt. Vernon from his brother Lawrence when he had barely 
attained his majority. His early wedded life was spent there and 
it was his home always, from the time he acquired it until his 
death, except when engaged elsewhere in the public service in his 
numerous employments from Commander of the forces of the Colony 
to President of the United States. He always longed to return to 
it when public duty would permit, and said the searcher of hearts 
was a witness that he had no wishes which aspired beyond the 
happy lot of living and dying a private citizen at Mt. Vernon. 
Daring the Revolution he carried with him a plat of the 8,000 
acres of the Mt. Vernon estate and kept himself always informed 
of the work done on each one of its farms, and knew what fields 
were being tilled and what crops were being raised on every field 
of every farm. He improved and added to the mansion, laid out 
roads and paths, planted trees, shrubs and flowers, introduced ani- 
mals of better pedigree and greater usefulness than had before 
been known in this country, invented a plow for cultivating his 
fields, and showed generally the keenest interest in all that con- 
cerned his home and the broad acres that were embraced within it. 
His love of home, however, though so intense, was subordinate to 
his love of country, his sense of duty and honor, and his regard 
for the example he felt he should always give the country. Of 
this we have an interesting illustration: During the Revolution a 
British man-of-war came up the Potomac and anchored near Mt. 
Vernon. Washington, of course, was then absent in command of 
the Continental forces. His manager, desiring to propitiate the 
enemy, not only for the safety which he hoped thereby to secure 
to General Washington's estate., but also because he had property 
of his own in the vicinity, visited the man-of-war and carried re- 
freshments to the British officers. When Washington heard of 
this his indignation was unbounded. He wrote a letter to his 
manager full of that vigorous and condensed expression of which 



22 

he had such command, showed his just wrath that the manager 
had, as he expressed it, u communed with a parcel of scoundrels,' 1 
and added, " It would have been less painful to me had they 
burned my house and laid my plantation in ruins." And still it is 
sometimes said that George Washington was an Englishman. 
Certainly he did not feel himself to be an Englishman when so 
speaking of English officers, and did not regard the Englishmen 
as countrymen of his during the Revolutionary struggle. It will 
be a sad day for America, a fateful augury for the Republic, when 
Americans cease to regard him as the " First Great American, " 
and fail to appreciate and admire in its full measure the glorious 
character of Washington, or in any way disturb the apotheosis 
made of him in his lifetime by our forefathers. Other great 
Americans have followed him and are entitled to our love and 
gratitude, but unless we are to be false to the noblest traditions 
and highest standards of our country, he will always retain 
his grand pre-eminence far above all others in the pantheon 
dedicated to the worship of American heroes. Of course England 
is glad to claim him. Alison, in speaking of him as " the most 
spotless character in history," says: " It is the greatest glory of 
England to have given birth in transatlantic wilds to such a man." 
While we welcome this admiration from abroad and are grateful 
for it, we must still claim Washington as our own and hold him 
up forever to the veneration and imitation of all succeeding gen- 
ir, il ions of his countrymen. The life at Mt. Vernon did much to 
develop in Washington those qualities which were afterwards so 
useful to his country. The detailed management which he ap- 
plied with such minuteness and such untiring zeal to all his duties 
as ( !ommander-in-Chief of the American forces had their trainino-, 
in large part, in the regular course of duties connected with the 
care of his estate. A country property could not have been man- 
aged with more exactness. His recreations there did much to 
produce that hardy constitution and strength of body and vigor of 
mind which rendered in the field such inestimable services to his 
country. He kept until a few years before his death a fine ken- 
nel of hounds. Prior to the Revolution they were English 
hounds. After the Revolution they were French stag hounds. 
Before the Revolution, during the hunting season, it was his cus- 
tom to follow the hounds three times a week. 



23 

Roads were cut through the woods which could be taken by 
the ladies and by such of the men as did not care to take the 
greater perils of the chase, but Washington always followed the 
hounds through the brush and woods, over the fences and through 
the roughest country. It was this training that enabled him to 
bear all the hardships, anxieties and responsibilities of the Revo- 
lutionary struggle, and gave him the frame and endurance which 
enabled him to meet the enemy in front, and cabals and treason 
all around him. It was such training, cultivating his native dar- 
ing, which led him to dash his charger on the British guns at 
Trenton and made him such a horseman as to deserve the su- 
perlative praise of Jefferson in this respect, that he was the most 
superb figure on horseback he had ever seen. His very appear- 
ance riding among his troops must have inspired a confidence and 
a courage whose value it is difficult to limit. 

Washington, himself, added the library to the mansion at Mt. 
Vernon. It contained, at the time of his death, it is estimated, 
about one thousand volumes. There were works of great variety 
among them ; a large portion devoted to farming, agriculture, 
horticulture, forestry and other subjects useful in farming, but 
an especially large proportion of them were works of history and 
of a politico-economical value of such character as might be useful 
to Washington in directing and counselling in public affairs. Even 
when not in public employment, he was constantly gathering that 
"solid information" for which Patrick Henry says he was distin- 
guished above all others, and preparing himself for that species of 
paternal guardianship which he exercised over the whole country. 
He knew with what voice potential he spoke upon public matters, 
and he wished his advice to be sound and useful. It was from 
Mt. Vernon that he sent out his circular-letter to the Governors 
of all the States in regard to the necessity for the constitutional 
convention. 

His household life furnishes a beautiful example of domestic 
tenderness and duty. He was as dutiful and as good as a husband 
and as a father to his adopted children as he had been loving, 
obedient and good as a son. One slight evidence of his filial piety 
is the rosebush planted by him at Mt. Vernon and named by him 
after his mother. 



24 

Not to detain you at this late hour with details of Washing- 
ton's home life, there is one glimpse of it as an example of much 
of the same sort which strikes me as peculiarly attractive and as 
illustrating his ever present sense of justice and duty, his famous 
character for truth, his tenderness and dignity. When Nelly 
Custis, Mrs. Washington's granddaughter, was a young woman, 
her grandmother had forbidden her to walk in the woods alone. 
At this time she was receiving the attentions of some gentleman, 
I think Carroll of Carrollton. She entered a room upon one occa- 
sion where General and Mrs. Washington were, and her grand- 
mother asked her if she had been walking in the woods alone ; 
she admitted that she had been. Her grandmother reprimanded 
her severely for disobeying her commands. Washington, in order 
probably to divert and alleviate the scolding by a remark in the 
way of pleasantry, said : u It may be she has not been alone." 
She turned to him and said, " Sir, you have always taught me to 
speak the truth." The old man, sympathizing with her sensitive- 
ness upon this supposed imputation on her veracity, and realizing 
the injustice he seemed to have done her, arose from his chair to 
his full height of six feet three inches, made her a stately bow 
and said, "My dear, I beg your pardon." 

His hospitality was unlimited. He spoke of Mt. Vernon as a 
"well resorted tavern," and said that for twenty } r ears the family 
had not dined alone. It was, in fact, frequented from every 
quarter of the world by those who were enthusiasts in. the cause 
which he represented and desired to lay their eyes upon and 
pay homage to him whom Lafayette styled "The Generalissimo 
<>f Liberty." It was the asylum, too, in instances, of those gener- 
ous Frenchmen who had aided us in our struggle for indepen- 
dence, and of their children, who had been driven from France by 
the horrors of the French Revolution. Lafayette's son spent two 
years there. 

The history of Washington's private life is really a part of the 
public history and everything that pertains to it is national in its 
character. Our Right Reverend Chairman has aptly said that 
Washington was "the maker of our flag." Indeed,in a sense he was, 
as he \\:i> the architect of the Republic. Without the skill of the 
American Fabius in the conduct of military affairs and his states- 



25 

manlike care and foresight in starting the ship of state in consti- 
tutional channels, it is hard to say what would have been the fate 
of our early efforts at establishing a nation. But it is not by 
mere metaphor alone that we can speak of Washington as the 
maker of our flag. He would have suggested nothing to his own 
glorification in connection with it, but the gratitude, devotion 
and reverence of our ancestors adopted the flag around which 
they were to hover, and which was ever to be dear to their de- 
scendants, from the Washington coat-of-arms. 

When we realize the unparalleled greatness of Washington, 
his unselfish devotion to the country, his integrity, his truth, his 
far-sighted wisdom and his usefulness of which our country in 
particular, but all mankind in a degree, has the benefit and the 
example, when we remember what an august, high-minded, high- 
souled, true-hearted man he was, and our inestimable obligations 
to him, and know that Mt. Vernon was the scene of so much that 
was endearing and ennobling in his career, our confidence in our 
countrymen assures us that it will ever remain the Mecca of 
American patriots. Surely, to the Sons of the Revolution, above 
all others, the spot which was the beloved home of the Father of 
his country, and where his sacred ashes repose, will always be 
holy ground. 



Dr. ROBERT CHILTON ATKINSON. 

"THE SPIRIT OF '76. IT IS NOT DEAD BUT 

SLEEPETH." 

The chief object of this Association is to perpetuate the mem- 
ory of the sleeping immortals, and by holding them up continu- 
ously as great and splendid examples, to promote the spread and 
endurance of a patriotic ardor throughout the land, and if possi- 
ble to the latest generation. It has been written that, " the his- 
tory of the world is the biography of its great men. " Mindful of 
that fact, we propose to do our part in the teaching of history, by 
a religious devotion to the memories of those who lived and died 
to establish civil and religious liberty in the land for themselves 
and the millions to come after them. We value beyond price the 
heritage they have bequeathed us, and 1 believe that we are will- 



26 

ing and ready in our humble way to follow in the footsteps they 
have trod. Material prosperity, with its attendant ease and 
security, seems to lull into peaceful repose all the warlike spirit in 
man ; ''when grim visage war has smoothed his wrinkled front" 
and ik bruised arms are hung up for monuments " we are more 
disposed to listen "to the lascivious pleasings of the lute" than 
to conform in either thought or habit to the rugged simplicity of 
"those times which tried men's souls." Nations illustrious for 
warlike prowess, whose very names were synonyms for war, 
whose warlike deeds had conquered half the world, have them- 
selves been subjected by their own conquests and become supinely 
inactive under the siren influence of accumulated luxuries. This 
is a truth of history. So the people of the United States have so 
successfully cultivated the arts of peace and appropriated to the 
uses of their daily lives the wondrous conveniences of their own 
inventions, that it would be difficult to-night to recognize in us 
the lineal descendants of the men who tracked the snows of Val- 
ley Forge with bleeding feet or humbled England's flag on Erie's 
surging waters. Therefore it is often asked what has become of 
the spirit of '76. Circumstances alter cases. Occasions make 
the men that they demand. In a people as yet untouched by that 
senility which lays its palsying hand on nations as well as indi- 
viduals, and especially a people so characterized by restless energy 
and assertion as are the people of these United States, there 
dwellcth a power and an energy, Avhich, once aroused by an urg- 
ent occasion, would burst into a flame which would warm and 
dazzle the universal world. More than a century has passed since 
our forefathers of the bull' and blue suffered and bled for the right 
of self government. 

•Their bodies are dust, 
Their good swords rust, 
Their souls are with their God, we trust." 

But there are still sentinels on the walls of Zion ; and though 
in certain quarters it is considered the proper caper to obsequiously 
court imported Dukes and supercilious Lords and to ape ridiculous 
fashions of speech and dress, because " they are so English, you 
know,*' yet there are. in city, hamlet, town and county of this 
broad land, millions who believe that "American Citizen" is the 



27 

proudest title, and that under the broad a?gis of liberty and equal- 
ity before the law, our institutions are eapable of producing the 
broadest development and the highest manhood. So believing, 
and relying upon the manifest destiny of their common country, 
they would defend her soil and her interests with the heroic valor 
of " Horatius at the Bridge," and the Spartans at the Pass. We 
have had some sad experiences. We have been torn with civil 
disorders. We have been wounded with civil war, but we are 
stronger and more united than ever we were before. What great 
nation has not had such troubles ? What people, from the equa- 
tor to the frozen north, have not had their revolutions 'i What 
family, their disagreements? What individual, his disorders or 
eruptions? Where thought is free and untrammeled there will 
be conflict of opinions, and it sometimes happens that great ideas 
are born in agony. Such travail is in time forgotten ; or, if not, 
the memory of the parturition only serves to increase the value of 
the product. After long years of peace, there has lately appeared 
above our horizon a speck of cloud which for a time threatened 
to develop into a very storm of war. Thank God, it did not, but 
until the powers of the earth recognize and acknowledge the prin- 
ciple which we asserted, and will ever maintain, there will always 
be the possibility of war. If come it must, we shall be in the 
right, battling for a principle. A principle almost as important 
as our very existence and nearly touching our pride as Americans. 
That will be the occasion to arouse a spirit which may be slumber- 
ing now. Then will flame again the spirit of '76. Then, — 

" North and South, together brought, 
Shall own the same electric thought," 
Shall rally round a common flag, 
Shall shout a common battle cry, 
America for Americans. 

Then, forgetting all the dissensions of the past and relying 
upon the valor and fidelity that has been proven on many a bloody 
field where they fought each other, Americans will tread together 
the marches once again for the rights of man. 

" To teach that right is more than might, 
And justice more than mail." 

We are told that history repeats itself. There were tories in 



28 

'76 and there may again be recreant sons to follow their example. 
Pecuniary interests and commercial combinations may stand, like 
a lion in the path, seeking to intimidate and control our representa- 
tives and ministers of war, but should manipulators in stocks and 
bonds seek to obstruct or cripple the Government in the assertion 
of a vital principle, we must take a lesson from the great Nazarine, 
who scourged the money changers from the Temple. It cannot 
be that a vital spirit like that of '7t> can ever die. Sooner will it 
reach with its infection far distant shores, leavening with its leaven 
the whole mass of humanity, until rank and privilege shall be 
swept away from among men by the rushing tide of man's desire 
for justice, liberty, equality. There are people still unacquainted 
with our history ; there are men who never dreamed of civil lib- 
erty. To them the message must be borne, and the spirit of '76 
shall be its missionary. Better that it should go as the white- 
winged Messenger of Peace, but go it will, even if as the eagle 
breasting the dark storm, the red bolt of war defying, covering 
and protecting the weak and the defenseless and dropping a liv- 
ing seed into their hearts, to grow and blossom into a magnificent 
tree of human progress and perfected manhood. We cannot ex- 
pect that such a magnificent progress of events shall be without 
interruptions or vicissitudes. Reverses may come. Financial 
panics may endure. Yea, even the scourge of pestilence and war 
may leave a track of grassy mounds and blackened ruins, but the 
spirit which animated our forefathers and defied fate will yet sur- 
vive to build again the monuments which error and misfortune 
may have overthrown. 



Prof. HALSEY COOLEY IVES. 

" HOW SHALL THE SPIRIT OF '76 FIND 

EXPRESSION IN 96 ?" 
.)//■. Chairman: 

1 feel that the members of the Committee of Arrangements 

displayed a due regard for the proprieties when they placed this 

toast at the end of the list ; it is appropriate that it should come 

last. It naturally takes us out of the past, with its delicate, ten- 

der color-. so often born of imagination and cherished by tradi- 



29 

tion ; it takes us away from these delightful pictures, tinged by 
romance, and brings us down to the plain matter of fact present. 

"What was this spirit ? 

If I were called upon to define the spirit of '76, or to express 
briefly that which, in my opinion, gave it strength, I would say, 
unity of action in the discharge of duties affecting the public wel- 
fare. 

If I were called upon to indicate the birthplace of this spirit, 
I should be forced to turn back the pages of history to a time 
long before those early colonists found homes on the New England 
coast, or elsewhere in this great land, made ours by their strug- 
gles ; generations before our forefathers turned from their old 
homes and faced westward ; long before the England of their day 
was known, back to the tribal life of that strong, patient, Saxon 
people, to that mother-head of nations, where the beginnings of 
self government were made in the recognition of individual obli- 
gation to the general good, to that point where active service and 
interest in tribal affairs was demanded of, and given by, the indi- 
vidual ; then was born that spirit which was so strongly mani- 
fested in '76 ; that spirit which, fostered and cherished by the 
descendants of those early people, enabled them to plant mile- 
stones along the road which led toward civilization. 

The pessimist often declares that the spirit of '76 no longer 
exists. 

It seems to me we have frequent evidence that it is to-day 
alive, though too often misdirected. For example, two of 
the most serious outbreaks which have occurred within the last 
few years, although justly condemned by all, were still, in each 
case, a striking evidence of this same spirit. It was no wild mob 
which gathered at the base of the statue in New Orleans ; it was 
an organized body citizens, called together by the domi- 
nating will of the people ; a people whose neglect to discharge 
the duty of citizenship, whose neglect of a daily application of 
the spirit of '76 had so impaired the working machinery of the 
city government, by giving it inefficient officials, that wrong and in- 
justice prevailed in public matters ; honest officials were intimidated 
and the dishonest openly worked in the interests of a colony of 
foreign political renegades and professional cut- throats. It seems 



30 

strange that such a state of affairs should exist in our day. The 
men of that sister city, at the mouth of our great river, were 
rudely awakened and confronted with that terror which their own 
neglect had made possible. Then it was that they were forced 
to become executioners. The men who marched from the base of 
a public statue to the doors of the parish prison in Mew 
Orleans were not the greatest criminals who had to do with 
the mafia affair ; they were the thousands of men of that city 
who, through the neglect of individual duty, who, failing to 
exercise the spirit of their forefathers in everyday affairs, these 
same k *good citizens'" — men who would shrink from wilfully 
committing crime — had brought disgrace upon their city, state 
and country, and disturbed the peaceful relations existing be- 
tween two great people ; they were the criminals ! 

Again, a few years ago in our sister city, Cincinnati, this 
same spirit, misguided, broke forth. You all remember the state 
of corruption existing in the courts of that city, which led to vio- 
lence. There, unlike the New Orleans affair, the leaders lost con- 
trol, and loss of life and great destruction of public property fol- 
lowed. 

It seems almost sacrilegious to use these incidents as evi- 
dence that the existence of this spirit of 'TO. aroused and 
misdirected in "i>G may lead to the commission of crimes 
against the best interests of humanity. "Wherever this 
spirit has caused people in our day to struggle against real 
or fancied wrongs, you will find that the conditions are 
called into existence by the failure of the large mass of 
intelligent people, who are rated as good citizens, to discharge the 
simple duties of citizenship. The people's will is obeyed, and as 
people act, or fail to act, in the exercise of their duty as citizens, 
just so their officers will give good or bad service. I have read 
recently or have heard someone express the following sentiment. 
I cannol give the words, but 1 express, I am sure, the idea as it 
came to me : " Ignorance of the duties of citizenship is a crime ; 
a failure to discharge duties, when understood, is a greater crime ; 
and, following this failure comes corruption of public morals and 
bad L r <>\ eminent.'" 

The best citizen to-day is he who expresses the spirit of "76 



in the discharge of daily duties ; is he who watches and studies 
the needs and requirements of his country ; first, the city, then the 
state, and then the general country, and in turn asks nothing as a 
reward but protection aud justice. And until this spirit is cher- 
ished, and finds expression in this manner, the political atmos- 
phere of local, state and general government will remain so 
unclean, so impure as to contaminate our whole social life. 

We are taught that there are sins of commission and sins of 
omission. The highest honor that can be reached in our day by a 
descendant of those men — our ancestors — who believed in, and 
lived under, the influence of the spirit of "76, is attained by the 
expression of that same spirit in the everyday affairs of life, in 
this year, 1890. 






SERMON 



BY THK 



Rt. Rev. Daniel S.Tuttle, d.d.,s.t.d 



BISHOP OF MISSOURI. 



President of the Missouri Society Sons of the Revolution. 



BEFORE THE 



State Society Sons of the Revolution and their Guests, 

The Society of Colonial Wars, The Daughters of the 

American Revolution, United States Army and 

Navy Officers, The Missouri Commander y 

Military Order of the Loyal Legion. 



Christ Church Cathedral, 

St. Louis, 
Sunday, February 23, 1896. 



(PRINTED BY THE SOCIETY.) 



F^ESS OF 
■ RD & T'.ERNAN FTG. CO. 
ST. LOUIS. 



fTi 



SERMON. 



"And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; 
and they shall hang iipon him all the glory of his father'' s 
h o use . ' ' — Isa la h , xxii: 23—24 . 

These are words spoken of Eliakim, son of 
Hilkiah. Bliakim was a good man and true; the 
prefect in the household of King Hezekiah. He was 
second to the king only ; as was Joseph to Pharaoh. 
The Lord Jehovah Himself appointed Eliakim to his 
place, and he was so to fill it as to be u a father to the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah." 
A good man set in high position becomes a tower of 
help to other men. Or, as our text quaintly puts it, 
he is as a strong nail or a stout peg on which others 
may depend, and on which they may hang their 
belongings. "I will fasten him as a nail in a sure 
place ; and they shall hang upon him all the glory of 
his father's house." 

Yesterday was an anniversary of the birthday 
of George Washington. To-day, by request of the 
Missouri Society of the Sons of the Revolution, I am 
set to speak some words of him whom all Americans 
delight to honor; nor Americans only, but all the 
world who have heard of him and know his history. 
We are gathered in the courts of the Lord's House. 
We may not forget reverence for His Sacred Name, 
or fealty to His holy Commands. When thinking of 
Washington we are not in the way of any such for- 
getfulness. For he, more than any other great man 
of affairs was ever wont to submit, on his knees, the 
steps of his life and the welfare of his country to the 
will and wisdom of Providence, and humbly to beseech 
for all his aims and plans the grace and guidance of 
Almighty God. To recount the life of Washington 
and dwell on its details with the painstaking atten- 
tion of affectionate gratitude is obviously impossible. 
Nor is there need. School boys and school girls 
know the facts in their minds, and keep the memory 
of the facts warm in their hearts. To preach a 



sermon upon Washington, to marshall the arguments, 
to show how love and obedience to God, and love and 
helpfulness to men, were the sovereign principles of 
his life ; nor is there need of this either. For his 
words and acts, his letters and official utterances 
plainly manifest throughout his loyal and stead}- 
adherence to this two-fold Whole Duty of Man. 

No, I can only pick out some things to think of. 
Let the line of selection be indicated by our text. It 
is no casting of slight upon the goodness and great- 
ness of Eliakim of old, if we venture to accommodate 
the application of the prophetic words to him of whom 
we speak to-day: "I will fasten him as a nail in a 
sure place ; and they shall hang upon him all the 
^glory of his father's house." Jefferson's words to 
Washington in 1793 are an echo of the text. They 
were written when the latter was debating with him- 
self whether to follow what seemed duty and stand 
for a second term of the presidential office, or to yield 
to inclination and retire into private life. "The 
confidence of the whole country is centered in you. 
North and South will hang together if they have you 
to hang on." 

I venture to assert that in the history of no other 
great nation upon earth, as in ours, have its birth 
and early preservation and development been so con- 
spicuously dependent, under God, upon one man. 



I. In the War of the Revolution. 

On July 2, 1775, Washington took his place as 
commander-in-chief at the head of the continental 
army. It numbered 14,500 men. They were sol- 
diers in spirit, and soldiers in personal bravery. But 
the}' were undisciplined. If any person could raise 
a regiment or a company he was entitled to its com- 
mand. Sturdy farmers were in the ranks looking to 
get back to their ploughs after a month or two of 
service. The militia men had left home avocations 



on irregular and short enlistments. The minute 
men — one-fourth of the militia — were most like active 
and skilled experts, yet they were not disciplined 
soldiers. There was no commissariat. The supply 
of arms and ammunition was scanty. At times 
barrels of sand were moved about, that the men 
might be encouraged, believing them to be powder. 
The chief had no military chest. He felt no solid 
civil government at his back. There was little 
money. And no credit. Congress owned nothing; 
and had no power to enforce anything. The thirteen 
original colonies were the sovereign rulers, with their 
rulership cramped by poverty and weakened by dis- 
sension. Ah ! with what splendid patience Wash- 
ington met all the difficulties and worked his way 
through them. More or less of military life he had 
known since he was commissioned a major of militia 
at nineteen. No little of service had he seen in the 
seven years' war between France and England over 
their American possessions. He had experience in 
irregular Indian fighting. With Braddock as he had 
been, he knew the art and necessity of careful drill 
and strict discipline for large bodies of troops. 

Washington set to work to bring order out of 
chaos ; and he persevered untiringly. Soldier that 
he was, he soon made effective, subordination of dis- 
cipline and distribution of duty. From the very first 
he enjoined upon the army attendance upon religious 
services. Rich farmer that he was, just come from 
the active personal management of his large Mt. 
Vernon estate, where more than 1,000 persons were 
employed and subsisted, it was his business habits 
and methods, his clear and quick grasp of details, and 
the confidence of others in his judgment and integ- 
rity, which sufficed to put the necessary supplies for 
camp and march and siege in decently creditable 
condition. Then, deeply impressed with the serious 
work he had entered upon, by earnest pleadings he 
got from the different colonies, what he knew was 
urgently needed, better terms of longer enlistments. 
Hot and resentful, the men wanted to fling themselves 



against the enemy in Boston. Congress and the 
country, impatient, urged Washington to do so. But 
his far-seeing wisdom and patient firmness kept the 
army for eight months to the discipline of preparation, 
before he ventured to take the offensive. Then, by 
his skill, he compelled the evacuation of Boston by 
the British without a blow struck, or a life lost. This 
was success. There were shoutings of triumph. But 
every tide has its ebb. The disastrous battle of Long 
Island ensued. Washington, by a succession of wise 
retreats, by a masterful series of skillful movements 
along the Delaware, and by standing steady with 
almost superhuman endurance under sharp criticisms, 
and military adversities, and even the pangs of hun- 
ger and the pains of frost, kept his little army from 
annihilation, presenting the necessary front of organ- 
ized resistance. Successes of this sort were far more 
conducive to the ultimate good of the cause than 
would have been brilliant encounters in the field. 
The character fitted to win these God gave to Wash- 
ington. And nature and experience proved and pol- 
ished the armor, by his surveyor's life when sixteen 
years of age ; by his wanderings in the wilderness ; 
by his conflict with treacherous savages ; by his prac- 
ticed capacity to meet emergencies ; by twenty 
3'ears of occupation of positions of responsibility in 
martial life ; and by a magnificently noble patience 
learned and put to use under the attacks and criticism 
of those years. Frederick the Great was so struck 
with admiration of his strategic movements in these 
times of discouragement that he sent to Washington 
his portrait with the message, "From the oldest 
General in Europe to the greatest General in the 
world." Yet, ambitious generals in the field, and 
impatient patriots in and out of Congress joined in a 
cabal to remove him from the chieftaincy as being 
too slow and timorous. Anyone less favored and 
fortified than he by God and nature would, I venture 
to think, have been flung out. His success during 
the first two critical years of the war, in holding on 
to resistance and avoiding destruction, was magnifi- 



cent leadership. Then the sky brightened. Early in 
1778 France signed a treaty of commerce and alliance 
with us. This act helped mightity to give form and 
consistency to our embryo of a nation. Nothing in 
the world but Franklin's deep trust in Washington's 
wisdom and capacity, and his success in inoculating 
the French court with the same sort of confidence, 
gained that treaty. Yet, when the French allies 
came over for help under Count d'Estaing their 
leaders and the American officers found themselves at 
loggerheads, and nothing but Washington's personal 
presence and influence averted disastrous disputes. 
There is no time nor need to search further. I feel 
sure that all who read and think are ready to agree. 
That the army did not waste away ; that dissensions 
did not outwork their dire results ; that organized re- 
sistance was kept up ; that France came to the rescue ; 
that success in arms was finally achieved, and the 
infant nation was saved, were due, under Providence, 
to Washington: to his trust in God, his faith in the 
righteousness of his country's cause, and the splendid 
qualities of leadership with which God and nature 
and experience had endowed him. And the modern 
Eliakim shall be writ larger, and higher, and clearer 
than the ancient, as a "nail fastened in a sure 
place ; ' ' strong and true to sustain all the immense 
interests dependent on him. 

II. At the Close of the War. 

The infant country was born. But there had 
been scarce strength for the birth. And infan- 
tile weakness was conspicuously manifest. To the 
helplessness of infancy was added exhaustion pro- 
duced by the war. The continental paper currency, 
like all fiat money which has not a sound fiscal system 
to support it, had become well nigh valueless. A 
common saying of my boyhood's days referred to this 
fact. Of a thing of no value it was said, "It's not 
worth a continental." 



The surrender of Cornwallis, October 19, 1781, 
virtually ended the war, because the British people 
were tired of it, and compelled Lord North's ministry 
to resign in March, 1782. But the definitive treaty 
of peace was not signed till the autumn of 1783. So 
for near two years Washington was obliged to keep 
the army in hand for whatever emergency might arise. 
And two very trying years they were to him and to 
his country. 

Active war was over. The troops were expect- 
ing to be disbanded. But large arrearages of pay 
were due. To be sure Congress had made pledges that 
the dues to the soldiers should be met, and had voted 
half pay to the officers for life. But the army saw 
no steps taken to make the promises good. And even 
if Congress took steps it was discovered that Congress 
itself was only a league with facilities for recommend- 
ing action to the States, but with no power to enforce 
it. And it was suspected that the States, in their 
poverty, would not tax themselves to pay. Discon- 
tent spread wide and sank deep. Inflammatory 
appeals were circulated. The soldiers were urged 
not to allow themselves to be disbanded till justice 
was obtained. The officers were entertaining doubts 
about the efficiency of the government and of all 
republican institutions. A guarded proposition was 
made to Washington that he should remain their 
leader. It carried with it the implication that they 
wanted him and needed him for a king. He shrank 
from the suggestion with indignation and abhorrence, 
and returned an answer of severe rebuke. Then he 
met with the officers at Newburgh, and in the meet- 
ing, after acknowledging their claims and assuring 
them they would not be disregarded, in a noble and 
forcible paper he showed how great would be the 
wickedness which would overturn the liberties of the 
country so recently secured, and plunge the inheri- 
tors thereof into fratricidal strife. The waters of 
patriotism, which had been clogged and diverted, 
again ran clear. And to the governors of the several 
States he issued an appeal of consummate wisdom, 



that a union should be formed, that justice should be 
sacredly done, and that much forbearance must be 
shown. His general orders proclaiming the cessation 
of hostilities ended with, "The chaplains of the sev- 
eral brigades will render thanks to Almighty God for 
all His mercies, particularly for His overruling the 
wrath of man to His own glory, and causing the rage 
of war to cease among the nations." 

In this critical biennium at the close of the war, 
Washington's faith in God, and love of his country, 
and unselfish and unwearied efforts for the common 
good made him a strong "nail fastened in a sure 
place," and upon him hung the freedom of repre- 
sentative government to the displacing of the pre- 
rogatives of personal rulership. 

III. In the Constitutional Convention. 

It would be hard to find in history another man 
made up of such well-balanced qualities of character, 
as was he whose memory we honor today. A French 
orator referring to him says, "Audacity destroys, 
genius elevates, good sense preserves and perfects." 
Four years after the war the good sense of Washing- 
ton is put to test in another crisis of his country's 
existence. He was profoundly convinced that in a 
Union, and in a strong Union only, could a real 
national existence be secured, such as to afford pro- 
tection to the people from foreign interference, and 
to beget vigor and to promote prosperity at home. 
He thought about it. He talked about it. He wrote 
about it. Who doubts, he pra3^ed over it. When the 
Convention met in 1787 it was a foregone conclusion 
that he must be its President. Upon the four months 
of deliberation of that Convention we can not dwell. 
What difficulties must be surmounted ! What clash- 
ing interests must be harmonized ! What prejudices 
must be moderated! What forbearance must be 
exercised! What patience must be shown! The 
whole world has eulogized the splendid work wrought 



by the men of that Convention in making our won- 
derful Constitution. Washington presided, though 
the technical deliberative work was mostly accom- 
plished in committee of the whole with Mr. Gorham 
of Massachusetts in the chair. Into the cauldron of 
that four months' debate were cast thirteen separate 
sovereignties eternally counteracting each other. 
Out of it came a birth, the new birth, of a Union, a 
Nation, which had had no real existence before. If 
an incantation were sung over the seething elements, 
faith and love and hope and patience and patriotism 
gave the notes of that song. And Washington's 
well known opinions, and confidence in his judgment, 
and reverence for his integrity, and love of his person 
were the mightiest factors to produce the auspicious 
result. Then afterwards, when nine States at least, 
must ratify the Constitution to make it operative, it 
was faith in Washington and love of Washington 
that carried the day in face of opposition everywhere 
strongly manifested, and led in Virginia by the un- 
surpassed eloquence of Patrick Henry himself. The 
stout nail was there ; fastened in a sure place. There 
was no displacement of its strength of steadiness, or 
its power for help. The Constitution stands for our 
very national life. And upon him, the Father of the 
Constitution, is hung all the glory of his country's 
house. 



IV. At the Helm of the First Adminis- 
tration. 

A new political system was to be worked. Sparta, 
Greece, Rome, Switzerland, with their annals, could 
not much help. The ship of state was putting out 
into a reach of waters where no chart was furnished 
and no soundings had been made. Of course the 
pilot to be taken aboard must be Washington. It is 
hard for us to count the great task he had to fix the 
points for sailing, and to keep the craft steady to 
her course. His nearest counsellors, Jefferson and 



Hamilton, were sturdy antagonists, crying against 
each other the advantages of distribution or concen- 
tration of government power. He must keep the 
peace between them. Wonderfully he did so. 
Honoring both, helped by both, moderating the coun- 
sels of both, and adopting the excellencies of each. 
He was at the helm eight years. Unwearied patience, 
unswerving constancy, unyielding hopefulness char- 
acterized his steering. Did the Pennsylvania dis- 
tillers think his patience weakness? They soon 
learned how that patience never took its hand off of 
the stout staff of firmness. Did the French Revolu- 
tionists count on his soldier spirit to carry him and his 
country into their warlike ranks? He immediately 
issued his proclamation of neutrality as between 
France and Great Britain. Jefferson penned the 
proclamation, though heartily sympathizing with the 
French. When disturbing questions between Eng- 
land and the United States arose, was it thought that 
he longed again to fight the enemy of former years? 
Instead he sent John Jay over the ocean to frame a 
treaty with England, though in connection with its 
acceptance and ratification such shafts of partisan 
obloquy and arrows of spiteful hate were shot at 
Washington as amaze us to read about or think of. 
All such like things he did because no other consid- 
eration than personal rectitude, and his country's 
real welfare, and Liberty's entrenchment, had the 
value of an atom's weight with him. 

Ah! in the perilously critical period when our 
infant nation was learning to walk, and the new 
Government must needs get into working condition, 
thanks be to God, that there was an Eliakim provided 
by Him, set as a strong nail fastened in a sure place, 
upon whom have been hung all the succeeding glories 
and amazing prosperities of his country's house! 

Fellow Sons of the Revolution ! Brethren all ! 
Hearken no longer to me. I bring you Washington's 
own exhortation: — "Reverence religion; diffuse 
knowledge throughout your land ; patronize the arts 
and sciences. Let Liberty and Order be inseparable 



companions. Control party spirit, the bane of free 
governments. Observe good faitli to and cultivate 
peace with all nations. Shut up ever}*- avenue to 
foreign influence. Contract rather than extend 
national connection. Rely on yourselves only. Be 
American in thought, and word, and deed." 

Then come with me in thought to Mt. Vernon ; 
which the grateful women of America have set apart 
to be a sacred home-temple for patriotism. Bend 
down. Your hero is dying. List for the last words 
as with difficulty they come through the inflamed 
and impeding throat: "I am not afraid to go." "It 
is well." 

God help us to follow him, as he obeyed God, 
and believed in Christ, and loved and served his 
fellowmen. 



I 








^ SERVICE ^ 

SUNDAY (H.00 A. M.), FEBRUARY 23d, A. D. W6, 
COMMEMORATIVE OF THE BIRTH OF 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, 

ST. LOUIS. 
MDCCCXCVI. 




Q 

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A FORM OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING 
TO ALMIGHTY GOD 
FOR THE BIRTH OF 

George Washington, 

SPECIALLY PREPARED FOR 

THE MISSOURI SOCIETY 

SONS OF THE REVOLUTION, 

TO BE USED IN 

Christ Church Cathedral, 

ST. LOUIS, 

ON 

SUNDAY, 

THE TWENTY-THIRD DAY OF FEBRUARY, 

AT U.00 O'CLOCK, A. M., 

MDCCCXCVL 







The Service will be conducted by 

Rt. Rev. DANIEL S. TUTTLE, S. T. D., 

Bishop of Missouri 

President of the Missouri Society Sons of the Revolution, 

assisted by 

Rev. GEORGE E. MARTIN, D. D., 

Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, St, Louis, 
Chaplain of the Missouri Society Sons of the Revolution, 



and the 

DEAN and CLERGY 

of Christ Church Cathedral. 





PROCESSIONAL HYMN. 

HE Son of God goes forth to war, 

A kingly crown to gain ; 
His blood-red banner streams afar : 

Who follows in his train ? 
Who best can drink his cup of woe, 
Triumphant over pain, 
Who patient bears his cross below — 
He follows in his train. 

2. The martyr first, whose eagle eye 

Could pierce beyond the grave, 
Who saw his Master in the sky, 

And called on him to save : 
Like him, with pardon on his tongue, 

In midst of mortal pain, 
He prayed for them that did the wrong : 

Who follows in his train } 

3. A glorious band, the chosen few, 

On whom the Spirit came : 
Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew, 

And mock'd the cross and flame : 
They met the tyrants brandished steel, 

The lion's gory mane; 
They bow'd their necks the death to feel : 

Who follows in their train ? 

4. A noble army, men and boys, 

The matron and the maid, 
Around the Saviour's throne rejoice, 

In robes of light array'd : 
They climb'd the steep ascent of heaven 

Through peril, toil and pain : 
O God ! to us may grace be given 

To follow in their train ! 

— Bishop Reginald Heber, 
A. D. 1837- 



The Minister shall read the following sentences 
of Holy Scripture : 

^^HE Lord is in His Holy Temple : let all the earth 
^£ keep silence before him. - Habakkuk „. 20 . 

We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers 
have told us, what work thou didst in their days, 
in the times of old. -p sa im xu v . i. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord ; and the people 
whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. 

—Psaltn xxxiii. 12. 

The Lord ordereth a good man's going, and maketh his 
way acceptable to himself. -p sa im ***»««. *j. 

Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to 
dwell together in unity! -p sa im cxxxm. *. 



Then the Minister shall proceed with the order 
for Morning Prayer, Prayer Book, page 3. 

Dearly beloved brethren, etc 



The Psalter for the day shall be this J 47th Psalm, 
to be followed by the Gloria Patri. 

PRAISE the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing 
praises unto our God; yea, a joyful and pleasant 
thing it is to be thankful. 

2. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, and 
gatKer~together the outcasts of Israel. 

3. He healeth those that are broken in heart, and giveth 
medicine to heal their sickness. 

4. He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them ail 
by their names. 

5. Great is our Lord, and great is his power; yea, and his 
wisdom is infinite. 




6. The Lord setteth up the meek, and bringeth the ungodly- 
down to the ground. 

7. O sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praises 
upon the harp unto our God. 

8. Who covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth 
rain for the earth ; and maketh the grass to grow upon the 
mountains, and herb for the use of men; 

9. Who giveth fodder unto the cattle, and feedeth the young 
ravens that call upon him. 

10. He hath no pleasure in the strength of an horse ; neither 
delighteth he in any man's legs. 

U. But the Lord's delight is in them that fear him, and 
put their trust in his mercy. 

12. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem ; praise thy God, O Zion. 

13. For he hath made fast the bars of thy gates, and hath 
blessed thy children within thee. 

14. He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with 
the flour of wheat. 

15. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth, and 
his word runneth very swiftly. 

1 6. He giveth snow like wool, and scattereth the hoar-frost 
like ashes. 

\ 7. He casteth forth his ice like morsels : who is able to 
abide his frost ? 

1 8. He sendeth out his word, and melteth them : he bloweth 
with his' wind, and the waters flow. 

19. He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and or- 
dinances unto Israel. 

20. He hath not dealt so with any nation; neither have 
the heathen knowledge of his laws. 

GLORIA PATRI. 

Then shall be read for the First Lesson the Eighth 
Chapter of the Book Deuteronomy ; followed by the 
Benedicite, Omnia Opera Domini. 

Prayer Book, page 8. 




Then shall be read for the Second Lesson the 
Tenth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. 
Matthew; to be followed by the 

BENEDICTUS. 



.ESSED be the Lord God of Israel : for he hath 
visited, and redeemed his people ; 

And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us : 
in the house of his servant David ; 
As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets : which 
have been since the world began ; 

That we should be saved from our enemies: and from 
the hand of all that hate us. 

To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers : and to 
remember his holy Covenant ; 

To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather 
Abraham : that he would give us ; 

That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies : 
might serve him without fear; 

In holiness and righteousness before him : all the days of 
our life. 

And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest : 
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 

To give knowledge of salvation unto his people : for the 
remission of their sins, 

Through the tender mercy of our God : whereby the day- 
spring from on high hath visited us ; 

To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the 
shadow of death : and to guide our feet in the way of peace. 
GLORIA PATRI. 

Then shall be said the 

APOSTLES' CREED. 

BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker 
of heaven and earth : 

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord : 
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of 
theVirgin Mary ; Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, 




dead, and buried : He descended into hell ; The third day he 
rose again from the dead : He ascended into heaven, And 
sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty : From 
thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost: The Holy Catholic Church: 
The Communion of Saints : The Forgiveness of sins : The 
Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. Amen, 

Then the Minister shall say, 

The Lord be with you. 
Answer, And with thy spirit. 
Minister. Let us pray. 

Then all devoutly kneeling, the Minister shall 
say the prayers following: 

O Lord, show thy mercy upon us. 
Answer. And grant us thy salvation. 
Minister. O Lord, save the State. 
Answer. And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee. 
Minister. Endue thy Ministers with righteousness. 
Answer. And make thy chosen people joyful. 
Minister. O Lord, save thy people. 
Answer. And bless thine inheritance. 
Minister. Give peace in our time, O Lord. 
Answer. For it is thou, Lord, only, that makest us 

dwell in safety. 
Minister. O God, make clean our hearts within us. 
Answer. And take not thy Holy Spirit from us. 

A COLLECT FOR PEACE. 

GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of 
| concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our 
[eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; 
m ^ Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of 
our enemies ; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not 
fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen, 






A COLLECT FOR GRACE. 

LORD, our heavenly Father, Almighty and ever- 
lasting God, who hast safely brought us to the 
beginning of this day; Defend us in the same 
with thy mighty power ; and grant that this day 
we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of 
danger ; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy govern- 
ance, may be righteous in thy sight ; through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen, 

A Prayer for the PRESIDENT of the United States, 
and ALL in CIVIL AUTHORITY. 

LORD, our heavenly Father, the high and mighty 
Ruler of the universe, who dost from thy throne 
behold all the dwellers upon earth ; Most heartily 
we beseech thee with thy favour to behold and 
bless thy servant the President of the United 
States, and all others in authority; and so replenish them 
with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that they may always incline 
to thy will, and walk in thy way. Endue them plenteously 
with heavenly gifts ; grant them in health and prosperity long 
to live ; and finally, after this life, to attain everlasting joy and 
felicity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

A PRAYER FOR CONGRESS. 

[OST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as 
for the people of these United States in general, 
so especially for their Senate and Representatives 
in Congress assembled ; That thou wouldest be 
pleased to direct and prosper all their consulta- 
tions, to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, 
the safety, honour, and welfare of thy people ; that all things 
may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the 
best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth 
and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us 
for all generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, 
for us, and thy whole Church, we humbly beg in the Name 
and Mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed Lord and 
Saviour. Amen. 





A PRAYER FOR ALL CONDITIONS OF MEN. 

1GOD, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, 
[we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and condi- 
Itions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to 
| make thy ways known unto them, thy saving 
' health unto all nations. More especially we pray 
for thy holy Church universal ; that it may be so guided and 
governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call 
themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and 
hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in 
righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to thy fatherly 
goodness all those who are any ways afflicted, or distressed, 
in mind, body, or estate; that it may please thee to comfort 
and relieve them, according to their several necessities; giving 
them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out 
of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ's 
sake. Amen. 



A SPECIAL THANKSGIVING. 

GOD, by whom the whole world is gov- 
erned and preserved, we give thee humble 
and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and 
loving kindness to us, and to all men. We 
thank thee for the privilege of commemorating in thy 
Holy Temple, with Praise and Thanksgiving, the 
Birth of thy servant, GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
whose name thou madest, throughout the world, a 
synonym for all that is best in human character and 
achievement. 

We thank thee that, having endowed him with 
every needed qualification of mind and heart and 
person, thou didst especially train him for the great 




work which, in thy far-seeing Providence, he was 
destined to perform ; even the deliverance of this land 
from political oppression : and the founding of an 
Empire which now stretches from sea to sea ; and 
which exercises a potent, and ever increasing in- 
fluence upon the nations of the earth. 

We thank thee that thou didst cover his head in 
the day of battle ; and protect him from the pestilence 
that walketh in darkness, and the sickness that de- 
stroy eth in the noonday ; that no weapon formed 
against him was permitted to prosper ; and that he 
was carried unscathed through innumerable dangers, 
to become the first Ruler of the people he had saved, 
and securely lay the foundations of our national Gov- 
ernment. 

We thank thee that in his Administration of our 
civil affairs, he set an example of wisdom, prudence, 
incorruptable integrity, and forgetfulness of self in 
his love for his country ; and loyalty to his conscience 
and his God : And we earnestly pray that his pure 
example at the beginning of our national life may be 
faithfully followed by our people, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

A COLLECT FOR 
THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

THOU who turnest the hearts of the children to 
the fathers, and hast declared that the righteous 
shall be had in everlasting remembrance, we 
thank thee for the inspiration which called into 
existence the Society of the Sons of the Revo- 
lution ; and the blessing which has hitherto attended it. And 
we pray thee to continue to aid our Society in this, and suc- 
ceeding generations, in the pious work of perpetuating the 
memory of the sacrifices, and sufferings, and valour of our 
fathers, through which our priceless heritage was won. 




And finally, when we also shall have served thee in our 
generation, may we be gathered unto our fathers, having the 
testimony of a good conscience ; in favor with thee our God, 
and in perfect charity with the world. All which we ask 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

2 Corinthians xiii. 14. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, 
and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all ever- 
more. Amen. 

t&** t^* G^* t£^* 

Then shall be sung 

HYMN 418. 

GOD, our help in ages past, 
Our hope for years to come, 

Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
And our eternal home. 

Before the hills in order stood, 
Or earth received her frame, 
From everlasting thou art God, 
To endless years the same. 

A thousand ages in thy sight 

Are like an evening gone, 
Short as the watch that ends the night 

Before the rising sun. 

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, 

Bears all its sons away ; 
They fly forgotten, as a dream 

Dies at the opening day. 

O God, our help in ages past, 

Our hope for years to come, 
Be thou our guard while troubles last, 

And our eternal home. 

—Rev. Isaac IVattt, 
A. D. 1719. 

From the Order for the Holy Communion. 

Prayer Book, page 222. 






THE COLLECT. 
LMIGHTY God, unto whom all hearts are open, 
all desires known, and from whom no secrets are 
hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the in- 
spiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly 
love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name ; 
through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Then shall the Minister rehearse the Ten Com- 
mandments ; after which shall be said the Collect, 
Epistle and Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent. 

Prayer Book, page 88. 

Then shall be sung, 

"AMERICA." 

l Y country! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing ; 
Land where my fathers died ! 
Land of the Pilgrim's pride ! 
From every mountain side 
Let freedom ring! 

My native country, thee — 
Land of the noble free — 

Thy name I love ; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills ; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song ; 
Let mortal tongues awake ; 
Let all that breathe partake ; 
Let rocks their silence break, — 

The sound prolong. 

Our father's God ! to thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To thee we sing: 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light ; 
Protect us by thy might, 

Great God ! our King. 

—Samuel Francis Smith, 
A. D. 1832. 
Died November 16th, 189$. 



THE SERMON, 

BY 

Rt. Rev. DANIEL S. TUTTLE, S. T. D. 



ODj 



THE OFFERTORY. 

The offerings will be applied towards an endowment for the old 

POHICK CHURCH, 

MOUNT VERNON, 

the site for which was selected by Washington himself, and of 
which he was Vestryman and Warden for several years. 



ANTHEM. 

From "The Triumph of David." 



—Dudley Buck. 



COLLECT. 




ALMIGHTY GOD, the Sovereign Commander 
of all the world, in whose hand is all power and 
might; We bless and magnify thy great and 
glorious Name for the abounding benefits and 
mercies which thou hast bestowed upon our land 
and nation. And, we beseech thee, give us grace to improve 
these great mercies to thy glory, the advancement of thy Gospel, 
the honor of our country, and, as much as in us lieth, to the 
good of all mankind. And, we beseech thee, give us such a 
sense of these great mercies, as may engage us to a true 
thankfulness, such as may appear in our lives by an humble, 
holy, and obedient walking before thee all our days; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Spirit 
be all glory and honor, world without end. Amen. 



BENEDICTION. 

HE God of peace, who brought again from the 
dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd 
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
covenant ; Make you perfect in every good work 
to do his will, working in you that which is well 

pleasing in his sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory 

for ever and ever. Amen, 




RECESSIONAL HYMN. 




LORIOUS things of thee are spoken, 

Sion, city of our God ; 
He, whose word cannot be broken, 
Formed thee for his own abode : 
On the Rock of Ages founded, 
What can shake thy sure repose ? 
With salvation's walls surrounded, 
Thou may'st smile at all thy foes. 

See, the streams of living waters 

Springing from eternal love, 
Well supply thy sons and daughters, 

And all fear of want remove. 
Who can faint, when such a river 

Ever will their thirst assuage? 
Grace which, like the Lord, the giver, 

Never fails from age to age. 

Round each habitation hovering, 

See the cloud and fire appear 
For a glory and a covering, 

Showing that the Lord is near. 
Thus deriving from their banner, 

Light by night, and shade by day, 
Safe they feed upon the manna, 

Which he feeds them when they pray. 



— Rev. John Newton, 
A. D. 1779. 









